The Unfinished Story
by xxIvorySkinnedxx
Summary: Something happened in Tris's past that made her decline Eric injecting her after passing her final test. Two time travels come to change that. The Divergent Crew all indulge in the book to find the problem.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Discovery**

After Tris has taken her final test; and her legs finally stop shaking, she breathes a sigh of relief. Eric approaches her his gun nicely hidden in his halter pretending to congratulate her. "Thanks." Tris says.

"There is one more thing before you can go and get ready for the welcoming banquet," he says. He beckons to one of the unfamiliar people behind him. A woman with blue hair hands him a small black case. He takes out a syringe and a long needle. She tenses up. The orange-brown liquid in the syringe reminds her of what they inject them with before simulations. "At least you aren't afraid of needles," he says. "This will inject you with a tracking device that will be activated only if you are reported missing. Just a precaution."

"How often do people go missing?" Tris asks, frowning. "Not often." Eric smirks. "This is a new development, courtesy of the Erudite. We have been injecting every Dauntless throughout the day, and I assume all other factions will comply as soon as possible."

Tris knows she shouldn't let him inject her with anything, especially not anything developed by Erudite—maybe even by Jeanine. But she also knows she can't refuse and as she finally came to a conclusion and denied Eric is about to pull out his gun.

Then the lights go out.

"_Stop!_" Someone shouts theirs a bright flash of red, then the lights turn back on. The room is practically empty only a small amount of people left, the remainders look around confused until Tris gasps. "Mom, Dad, Caleb what're you guys doing here?" She pushes through the group and embraces her mom and dad, wondering whether she should the same for her brother, but settles for a smile and nod.

Everyone stares at the small crowd of people who appeared out of nowhere; Caleb, Natalie and Andrew Prior, Marcus Eaton, Susan and Robert Black, Cara and Tori Wu only 2 were unrecognized. The young girls are dressed in a mixture of Dauntless and Amity clothes clutching huge guns. "Anybody move and I shoot." One of the girls shouts flipping her fair brown hair out of her eyes.

"Cara!" Will exclaims ignoring the girls warning and taking a step forward. "I _swear_ I'll _shoot_ you!" The girl aims at his leg. "Stop Will I'm fine, they said they'll explain." She said throwing her brother a warm smile. Four looks over at his dad their eyes meeting for a few seconds. Marcus tries a weak smile but Four doesn't acknowledge it.

"What's going on here?" Eric points his gun at the girl her jet-black bangs hanging in her face as she glares right back at him. "We're not here to kill anyone or attack, we're here to fetch. These guns are just a precaution." The brown haired one says. "I'm Alexandra this is Violet." Violet nods lowering her gun.

Four who's been analyzing this situation lowers his gun and stares shocked. "Alexandra..?" He whispers.

"Glad you remember me, _Four_ is it?" She smiles and he grins back putting his gun back in his halter. Tris throws him a confused look which goes unnoticed. "Four put your gun back up." Eric orders. "She won't shoot. Though I don't know about the other one." Four says nudging Eric to put his gun down.

Eric recognizes Alexandra as well they were in training together but he never liked her, she supposedly jumped and died in the Chasm, but suddenly here she is. She speaks again. "Tris, Four, Christina, Will, Eric, Marlene, Lynn, Zeke," She pauses then says a little to dreamily. "Peter Hayes." He throws her a confused look but she continues before anyone can question it. "Oh, and Uriah we need you to come with us."

"Yes!" Uriah shouts. "I thought I was left out… where we going?" Uriah heads towards the group before Zeke grabs him by his neck collar. "Why should we?"

"Why do people always ask us that? _Why? Who? Where?_ Can you guys just come with us?" Violet sighs lowering her gun. "Damn, I feel like we're back with the Hunger Games group." She mumbles. Alexandra laughs pushing her playfully.

"Ok, I'm bored and cranky let's just do this." Violet says throwing 3 purple ball on the floor a huge black portal opens up, and she points towards it. "Ok, jump through."

"No way!" Christina backs up standing behind Will. "First jumper?" Violet sighs looking at Tris. "What's on the other side?" She questions taking a few steps forward.

"You'll see when you get there." Tris takes a deep breath more curious then scared before glancing at Four, he nods and they walk through together. Natalie and Andrew follow after their daughter with Caleb. Marcus follows, not wanting to be left behind. "Oh crap, _seriously we just graduated._" Christina says tugging on Will's arm towards the portal, grabbing Cara along the way they go through.

"_Unfair_ I wanted to go through first." Uriah says releasing himself from Will's grasp and going through. "Uriah, you idiot." Zeke follows in with Tori.

_"Uriah…_ could… get hurt." Marlene cringes grabbing Lynn by the hand, she drags her to the portal. Robert and a reluctant Susan follow. "Wait is this the smartest choice." She trembles.

Peter and Eric don't move "Come on!" Violet motions. "They all went through."

"No." Eric says glaring at her.

"I've never liked you anyway." Violet aims her gun and shoots Eric in the leg with a simulated bullet, that they stole from Duauntless equipment. "Now through!" She barks. "You little bitch." Eric mumbles on the floor, he yanks out the stick before shooting Violet in the arm. "Butt-hole!" She clutches at her arm before kicking Eric in the stomach.

"Now!" she kicks him again.

"Go!" and again, "Through!" and again. Eric grabs her by the leg pulling her down and punching her hardly. They wrestle for a while before she stands up and tackles him into the portal.

Alexandra looks at Peter. "You coming?" He scowls at her before walking towards the portal, Alexandra stares dreamily before him until he disappears through. _He's so cute. _She thinks to herself. _He could so pass off as Miles Teller if he was alive during my century._

She makes a quick glance around the room before quickly taking out several small blue balls. Crushing it under her foot she covers her nose with a cloth and goes through the portal. As the blue fog spreads through the town and all its people freeze, the portal vanishes along with her and the other 20 people.

* * *

><p>The room was large and perfectly organized; 2 large sofas, 3 love seats, 6 single chairs all surrounding a large coffee table with a single book on it. There were 2 mini fridges, and an air conditioner in the top corner of the ceiling. Their on the left side of the wall was 3 doors two leading to the bathrooms, and the other to the kitchen. On the right side next to one of the sofas was another door leading to the bedrooms.<p>

As Alexandra finally emerges everyone stares at her. "Did you do it?" Violet asks. "Everyone in the town will be frozen for weeks." She nodded.

"Can someone please tell us, what's going on?" Tris questions confused.

"We're from the 21st century decades before your time." Alexandra starts. "We've been sent between future, pasts, different worlds to prevent anything that shouldn't be happening from happening." Violet adds pushing off Eric.

"Why are you here?" Eric stumbles getting up. "Well, something happened in Tris's past for her to decline the serum and you were going to kill her." Everyone glares at Eric. "You were going to kill her." Four asks defensively. "How dare you." Mr. Prior the usually calm man glares. "You won't touch our daughter." Mrs Priors grabs Tris protectively shielding her behind them, she flushes knowing fully well she could handle Eric by herself. Everyone seemed to be ganging up on Eric expect Marcus and Peter.

"Hey guys chill, come on, that's what we're here for to change that, that one choice in Tris's past changed everything; and we're staying here until we finish this book." She said pointing toward the book on the table.

"Ahh, we're reading lame. Where's the exit?" Uriah whines. Marlene shushes him. Violet lifts the book with the Dauntless sign on it. "This is Tris's life in a book." Tris thinks of all her private thoughts, her and Tobias her whole life exposed to everyone.

Everyone will know.

Everyone will hear.

"Do we have too? All of it?" Tris asks. "Unless you want to die early, yes." Alexandra says simply. "Lets get started." Will claps his hands loudly.

Marlene settles down on one of the loveseats Uriah stretches over the rest of the couch laying his head on a pillow in Marlene's lap. Lynn sits on the single chair next to them envy coursing through her veins. Tobias and Tris debate whether sitting together or not but Christina interrupts before either can come to a conclusion. "Tris come sit with us." Tris throws Tobias a sad smile before she sits with Will, Christina, Robert and Cara. Tobias sits with Zeke and Tori.

Susan and Caleb accidentally both sit in a loveseat at the same time and awkwardly avoid each other's gaze, as old feelings resurface. Mr. and Mrs. Prior sit in the last love seat. Peter, Eric and Marcus take single chairs. Alexandra excitedly sits next to Peter and simply watches him. "Ok who'll read first?" Alexandra asks never taking her eyes off Peter.

"I think I should read the first chapter to the book about me," Tris says holdng out her hand. "Ok then, go ahead." Violet hands her the book before sitting in the last single chair.

"Here goes nothing."

**So the people in this are Caleb, Natalie and Andrew Prior, Tobias/Four and Marcus Eaton, Susan and Robert Black, Cara and Tori, Tris, Christina, Will, Eric, Marlene, Lynn, Zeke, Peter and Uriah plus two OC's i just made them up. I know no one named Alexandra or Violet. I plan to actually finish this unlike other people who write about finishing the Divergent trilogy and don't.**

**Ivory out XoXo**


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER ONE**

"Bored already." Uriah groans. "I haven't even read a sentence." Tris protests. "Chapter One what type of boring title is that?" He answers.

"Ok fine. How about we all name the chapter we read." Tris suggests. Uriah nods.

"This chapter's called drum- roll please… Chapter One."

Uriah groans while she laughs.

**THERE IS ONE mirror in my house.**

"Only one? Why!" Christina asks outraged. "Why would we need more than one, if we discourage vanity." Andrew Prior says.

"Good point."

**It is behind a sliding panel in the hallway upstairs.**

"And you hide it."

**Our faction allows me to stand in front of it on the second day of every third month,**

"Ok wow, the average person should look at themselves at least eight times a day." Uriah says. "That's not proven." Will says.

"It is in my books."

**The day my mother cuts my hair. ****I sit on the stool and my mother stands behind me with the scissors,**

"She gonna slit you throat!" Uriah gasps. "Can I read one sentence without being interrupted." Tris glares.

"Fine, sorry."

"And I wouldn't." Natalie Prior says before Tris continues.

**trimming. The strands fall on the floor in a dull, blond ring.**

"Your hair's not dull, Tris. It's pretty." Edward blurts out before he can stop himself. Tris blushes.

**When she finishes, she pulls my hair away from my face and twists it into a knot. I note how calm she looks and how focused she is. She is well-practiced in the art of losing herself. I can't say the same of myself. ****I sneak a look at my reflection when she isn't paying attention-**

"Vain." Peter coughs.

**—not for the sake of vanity, but out of curiosity.**

Tris emphasizes looking at Peter. "Whoa, I'm actually going to try it. No mirror three weeks, who's in?" Christina excitedly exclaims.

"I can't go without looking at this pretty face." Uriah chuckles. Everyone laughs. "Oh is that how it is; challenge accepted no mirror 3 months."

"Yeah right, Uriah." Zeke laughs. "I'm in too, just to beat you."

"Hmm, we shall see."

**A lot can happen to a person's appearance in three months. In my reflection, I see a narrow face, wide, round eyes, and a long, thin nose—**

"Your nose is pretty long." Cara notes staring at Tris's face. She buriers her face in the book blushing as people try to look at her face, she begins reading in a rush.

**I still look like a little girl, though sometime in the last few months I turned sixteen.**

"She is quite small, weak and girly." Eric notes. "How'd she end up number 1?"

"I'm number 1." Tris asks in disbelief. The whole room looks at Eric, Alexandra and Violet glaring at him for revealing something about the future. "I'm very proud of you Tris." Her mom shines with pride knowing how it feels to be so good at something.

"I lost to a Stiff." Peter looks like he wants to kill her. "You came second, chill out." Alexandra says as a flimsy attempt at cheering him up. He smirks a bit but is still fuming.

**The other factions celebrate birthdays, but we don't. It would be self-indulgent.**

"No birthdays, no mirrors, no burgers. Abnegation sure is living the life." Lynn says the sarcasm evident in her voice.

**"There," she says when she pins the knot in place. Her eyes catch mine in the mirror. It is too late to look away, but instead of scolding me, she smiles at our reflection. I frown a little. Why doesn't she reprimand me for staring at myself?**

"Why didn't you reprimand her?" Andrew asks his wife. "Because I know she isn't vain, and it's almost time for her test why put a damper on her day."

He nods understandingly.

**"So today is the day," she says. ****"Yes," I reply.**

**"Are you nervous?"**

"Yes," Every transfer and initiate answer.

**I stare into my own eyes for a moment. Today is the day of the aptitude test that will show me which of the five factions I belong in. And tomorrow, at the Choosing Ceremony, I will decide on a faction; I will decide the rest of my life; I will decide to stay with my family or abandon them.**

**"No," I say. **

"Liar." Eric says. Tris repeats her mothers words before saying. "I was terrified, she knows I was."

**"The tests don't have to change our choices."**

**"Right." She smiles. "Let's go eat breakfast."**

**"Thank you. For cutting my hair." ****She kisses my cheek and slides the panel over the mirror. I think my mother could be beautiful, ****in a different world.**

"Mom's very beautiful." Caleb protests. "That was a kind of rude." Susan says. "Incredibily rude." Cara adds

"Beatrice apologize immediately." Eric scolds her mockingily. Uriah topples over laughing.

Tris stares at her mom. "Wait let me read, I can explain!"

**Her body is thin beneath the gray robe. She has high cheekbones and long eyelashes, and when she lets her hair down at night, it hangs in waves over her shoulders. But she must hide that beauty in Abnegation.**

"See i'm calling her beautiful." Natalie smiles warmly at her daughter. "I never thought any differently, thank you sweetheart."

Alexandra scans Tris's mom. "Our times clothing would make you look even better than you do now." She says critically.

Tris stares at their clothes it was Dauntless style, yes it looked good on them with their perfect figures and amazing features but she didn't understand what she meant.

**We walk together to the kitchen. On these mornings when my brother makes breakfast, and my father's hand skims my hair as he reads the newspaper, and my mother hums as she clears the table—it is on these mornings that I feel guiltiest for wanting to leave them.**

The Priors avoid eye contact awkwardly.

**The bus stinks of exhaust. Every time it hits a patch of uneven pavement, it jostles me from side to side, even though I'm gripping the seat to keep myself still.**

"Take the train, duh." Uriah face palms. "That's only for Dauntless." Zeke says.

"Shame."

**My older brother, Caleb, stands in the aisle, holding a railing above his head to keep himself steady. We don't look alike. He has my father's dark hair and hooked nose and my mother's green eyes and dimpled cheeks. **

"Nice description." Cara cooed. Marlene, Susan, Christina and Alexandra dreamily stare at Caleb. He turns a deep shade of red. "Dude, your brother is so hot." Alexandra says as a matter of fact. "Hubba, hubba." Marlene and Christina sigh.

Violet nods. "It's true."

"That's so weird." Tris has a disgusted look on her face. "He's my brother... besides Susan and Caleb are a thing."

"No, we're not!" Said two say unconvincingly. "Sure..." Edward drags him and Tris exchanging a knowing look. "We're in different factions, anyway." Susan continues in a small voice avoiding eye contact with anyone. "It wouldn't work."

**When he was younger, that collection of features looked strange,**

"Ouch." Caleb mutters.

**but now it suits him. If he wasn't Abnegation, I'm sure the girls at school would stare at him.**

"Really?" Caleb questions. Most of the girls nod.

**He also inherited my mother's talent for selflessness. He gave his seat to a surly Candor man on the bus without a second thought.**

He's embarrassment from the description long forgotten, Caleb gives himself a disapproving shake.

**The Candor man wears a black suit with a white tie—Candor standard uniform. Their faction values honesty and sees the truth as black and white, so that is what they wear. ****The gaps between the buildings narrow and the roads are smoother as we near the heart of the city. The building that was once called the Sears Tower—we call it the Hub—emerges from the fog, a black pillar in the skyline. The bus passes under the elevated tracks. I have never been on a train, though they never stop running and there are tracks everywhere. Only the Dauntless ride them.**

"Go Dauntless!" Uriah cheers. "Shut up." Eric barks when more Dauntless join in.

**Five years ago, volunteer construction workers from Abnegation repaved some of the roads. They started in the middle of the city and worked their way outward until they ran out of materials. "****What they just ran out? I never go that in this part." Violet asks. "We had the material**

**The roads where I live are still cracked and patchy, and it's not safe to drive on them. We don't have a car anyway.**

**Caleb's expression is placid as the bus sways and jolts on the road. The gray robe falls from his arm as he clutches a pole for balance. I can tell by the constant shift of his eyes that he is watching the people around us—striving to see only them and to forget himself. **

"Actually... I was thinking of how the bus operates." Caleb corrects her. "Don't we all." Will gives the air a fist pump in Caleb's direction.

**Candor values honesty, but our faction, Abnegation, values selflessness.**

**The bus stops in front of the school and I get up, scooting past the Candor man. I grab Caleb's arm as I stumble over the man's shoes. My slacks are too long, and I've never been that graceful.**

Peter, Alexandra and Uriah chuckle.

**The Upper Levels building is the oldest of the three schools in the city: Lower Levels, Mid-Levels, and Upper Levels. Like all the other buildings around it, it is made of glass and steel. In front of it is a large metal sculpture that the Dauntless climb after school, daring each other to go higher and higher. Last year I watched one of them fall and break her leg. I was the one who ran to get the nurse.**

"Thanks for that by the way." Alexandra says.

Tris gives her an unbelievable look. "That was you?"

"Yeah, we were just checking up on things... me and Vi that is, then _oops_." Violet begins to laugh. "Hey! That was not my fault."

**"Aptitude tests today," I say. Caleb is not quite a year older than I am, so we are in the same year at school. ****He nods as we pass through the front doors. My muscles tighten the second we walk in. The atmosphere feels hungry, like every sixteen-year-old is trying to devour as much as he can get of this last day.**

"We're not animals, Tris." Cara crosses her arms insulted. "Well, some of us aren't." Four chuckles looking at Uriah who's playing with strands of Marlenes' hair as if he's a cat.

**It is likely that we will not walk these halls again after the Choosing Ceremony—once we choose, our new factions will be responsible for finishing our education. ****Our classes are cut in half today, so we will attend all of them before the aptitude tests, which take place after lunch. Myheart rate is already elevated.**

**"You aren't at all worried about what they'll tell you?" I ask Caleb.**

**We pause at the split in the hallway where he will go one way, toward Advanced Math, and I will go the other, toward Faction History. ****He raises an eyebrow at me. "Are you?"**

"Directing the question back at her," Will nods. "smart."

**I could tell him I've been worried for weeks about what the aptitude test will tell me—Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, Amity, or Dauntless?**

"You could've told me." Caleb says looking at his sister. "No, I don't think I could actually." Tris said sadly.

**Instead I smile and say, "Not really." ****He smiles back. "Well…have a good day." ****I walk toward Faction History, chewing on my lower lip. He never answered my question.**

"Aren't you observant." Caleb raises an eyebrow. "I thought I had you."

**The hallways are cramped, though the light coming through the windows creates the illusion of space; they are one of the only places where the factions mix, at our age. Today the crowd has a new kind of energy, a last day mania.**

**A girl with long curly hair shouts "Hey!" next to my ear, waving at a distant friend.**

"Can you say rude." Christina huffs. "It was a Candor girl." Tris adds.

"That faction, hmm how expected." Though that was her faction only months ago Christina shakes her head disapprovingly as if their the worst one ever.

**A jacket sleeve smacks me on the cheek. ****Then an Erudite boy in a blue sweater shoves me. I lose my balance and fall hard on the ground.**

**"Out of my way, Stiff," he snaps, and continues down the hallway.**

"The nerve." Andrew Prior says his face turning red. "The Erudite are seriously out of hand." Natalie adds just as angry but hiding it behind her mask.

"Sorry, we offended you." Natalie says to her son.

"It's ok, some of us are arrogant."

**My cheeks warm. I get up and dust myself off. A few people stopped when I fell, but none of them offered to help me.**

"Huh, this is unbelievable." Alexandra bursts standing up. "That's called bullying where we're from-"

"It's called bullying here as well." Marcus interupts.

"Either way, bullying is getting out of hand people need to take a stand against all these people. They can't just go round thinking their better than you! Don't let them judge you for something you're not doing! Whether it's cyber bullying or-"

"Alexandra shut up and sit down." Violet says. "She used to be a motivational speaker." Alexandra flushes. "What's that?" Tris asks.

"A motivational speaker also known as an inspirational speaker is a speaker who makes speeches intended to motivate or inspire an audience. The talk itself was known as a pep talk." Caleb answers. "I read a book on jobs that no longer exist." He continued smugly.

"Interesting, maybe you should consider a job in the goverment." Marcus says to her.

**Their eyes follow me to the edge of the hallway. This sort of thing has been happening to others in my faction for months now—the Erudite have been releasing antagonistic reports about Abnegation, and it has begun to affect the way we relate at school.**

"Why didn't you tell us? We had no idea it was that bad." Andrew worries. "We thought it would pass." Tris answers.

**The gray clothes, the plain hairstyle, and the unassuming demeanor of my faction are supposed to make it easier for me to forget myself, and easier for everyone else to forget me too. But now they make me a target.**

**I pause by a window in the E Wing and wait for the Dauntless to arrive. I do this every morning. At exactly 7:25, the Dauntless prove their bravery by jumping from a moving train.**

"Whoa, stalker!" Uriah screams. "Were you like obsessed with us or something?"

"No! I just found you guys intresting."

**My father calls the Dauntless "hellions." **

"Haha, hellions." Alexandra laughs like it's the funniest thing ever. Soon Uriah, Christina, Violet and Marlene join in.

"Ok sorry, continue." Alexandra shushes.

**They are pierced, tattooed, and black-clothed. Their primary purpose is to guard the fence that surrounds our city. From what, I don't know.**

"I still don't know." Tris glances at Four for an answer. "Neither do I." Four shrugs. The whole room looks at Eric.

"I know what i'm told, and what's behind the fence isn't one of them" He answers.

"Maybe we shoul-"

"Why under any circumstances would you go behind the fence?" Natalie asks. "Why not go?" When her mother stay's silent she shifts her gaze to Alexandra and Violet. "Do you know what's behind it?"

"Of cource we do, we're just not allowed to tell you." Violet explains. Alexandra gives Natalie a pointed look.

"Fine." Tris goes back to the book._ This isn't over, _Four thinks to himself knowing Tris.

**They should perplex me. I should wonder what courage—which is the virtue they most value—has to do with a metal ring through your nostril.**

"I never got that part either." Four agrees. "Does make you look cool though." Will says.

**Instead my eyes cling to them wherever they go.**

"You are a stalker." Eric smirks.

**The train whistle blares, the sound resonating in my chest. The light fixed to the front of the train clicks on and off as the train hurtles past the school, squealing on iron rails. And as the last few cars pass, a mass exodus of young men and women in dark clothing hurl themselves from the moving cars, some dropping and rolling, others stumbling a few steps before regaining their balance. One of the boys wraps his arm around a girl's shoulders, laughing.**

**Watching them is a foolish practice.**

"I used to watch them sometimes too." Christina admits blushing.

**I turn away from the window and press through the crowd to the Faction History classroom.**

"You should say excuse me." Andrew scolds his daughter. "Right," She agrees quickly. "Done with Chapter One."

"Ok just a note I think this should be called; Life as an Abnegation or My Weird World." Uriah says. "Just a suggestion."

"How about since you like to talk so much you read the next chapter." Tris says chucking him the book. "Fine. This will be called; The Test, or The Choices or-"

"Just read, Uri." Marlene punches him. "Ok, ok don't get your Dauntless cake in a bunch."

"I think it should be called Life as an Abnegation." Tris nods.

"See... I'm a genius."


	3. Chapter 3 (Note frm Uri: It's The Test)

**CHAPTER TWO**

"Uri?" Marlene pokes him.

"What?"

"Read."

"I am." He says sarcastically.

"Out loud." Lynn adds.

"Can't you guys just listen to the thoughts coming out of my head?" He taps his head smirking cheekily. "I mean if some person can write a book fully from Tris's mind, why can't you guys read mine? Where'd you guys even get this book?"

Violet gives him a blank look. "We don't know, we're given the books and then we go out and do our jobs. Now please read." She pauses. "Aloud Uriah."

**THE TESTS BEGIN after lunch. We sit at the long tables in the cafeteria, and the test administrators call ten names at a time, one for each testing room. I sit next to Caleb and across from our neighbor Susan.**

_Finally,_ Susan thinks to herself giddy.

**Susan's father travels throughout the city for his job, so he has a car and drives her to and from school every day. He offered to drive us, too, but as Caleb says, we prefer to leave later and would not want to inconvenience him.**

"We really did not mind." Susan says to Caleb and Tris. "I prefered to walk." Caleb answers.

"Well, I didn't mind inconveniencing them once in a while." Tris mumbles softly.

**Of course not.**

"Why'd you read it all sarcastically?" Eric questions. "Because Tris was obviously jealous she wasn't as Abnegation as Caleb and, that she did't get to ride in the car."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Caleb asks. "Well you never really asked me if I wanted to ride in the car." Tris says. "I thought you'd say the same."

"You thought wrong." Alexandra says for Tris.

**The test administrators are mostly Abnegation volunteers, although there is an Erudite in one of the testing rooms and a Dauntless in another to test those of us from Abnegation, because the rules state that we can't be tested by someone from our own faction. The rules also say that we can't prepare for the test in any way, so I don't know what to expect.**

"Well how do you prepare for something you don't know." Violet states.

"Well their were other ways many in which people consider; asking your parents or the factionless," Caleb starts. "Accessing the Erudite test files." Will continues. They start shooting ideas at eachother until Uriah asks them if he can read.

**My gaze drifts from Susan-**

"Why were you staring at her?" Uriah stops mid sentence and snorts.

"Les-be honest." says Alexandra the two burst out laughing. Violet sighs. "You should hear Yo Mama disses." Alexandra adds. "I would love to hear you diss peoples mama's."

"After." Marlene says a little too loudly, watching the two the jealousy took over her. "I'm sorry," She coughs. "I meant like after the chapter."

"Just to say I wasn't staring at her, I was thinking and my gaze accidently landed on her." Tris says. "Sure..." Uriah and Alexandra say simultaneously before laughing again.

"Ok I'll read." Marlene reaches to the take the book from Uriah but he shifts it away and starts reading.

**to the Dauntless tables across the room. They are laughing and shouting and playing cards.**

"I'm starting to wonder if you really are obsessed, with them." Robert laughs in a Amity way, so Tris knows he's joking.

**At another set of tables, the Erudite chatter over books and newspapers, in constant pursuit of knowledge.**

"See i'm describing all of them. I'm not obsessed." Tris can't help but say.

**A group of Amity girls in yellow and red sit in a circle on the cafeteria floor, playing some kind of hand-slapping game involving a rhyming song.**

"Not only the Amity play that game, they hog it like it's their game but we can play it too." Uriah bursts. "We don't hog it, the other factions call us childish and immature just for playing it," Edward says. "We didn't think anyone would want to play it besides our faction.

Uriah nods understandingly.

**Every few minutes I hear a chorus of laughter from them as someone is eliminated and has to sit in the center of the circle. At the table next to them, Candor boys make wide gestures with their hands. They appear to be arguing about something, but it must not be serious, because some of them are still smiling.**

**At the Abnegation table, we sit quietly and wait. **

"Stiff's sure know how to throw a party." Peter says bluntly.

**Faction customs dictate even idle behavior and supersede individual preference. I doubt all the Erudite want to study all the time, **

"We don't." Caleb says.

**or that every Candor enjoys a lively debate, **

"True that." Christina points out.

**but they can't defy the norms of their factions any more than I can.**

"Praise." Cara mumbles.

"Its like it's illegal to be different here." Alexandra pouts. "It is, Divergents remember." Eric says. A few shivers erupt through the room.

"How is it wrong to not be like everyone else- well in your case everyone in your faction." The whole room stares silently as she goes through another one of her talks in silence. "It used to be good to stand out and be differen-"

"But things change." Violet says cutting her off. "Either way our time wasn't any better than theirs." Alexandra slumps in her chair in defeat on hearing this, motioning for Uriah to continue she feels her gaze wander back to Peter only to find him already staring at her.

She feels a smile graze her lips.

**Caleb's name is called in the next group. He moves confidently toward the exit. I don't need to wish him luck or assure him that he shouldn't be nervous. He knows where he belongs, and as far as I know, he always has. **

"I wish it was that simple." Caleb clasps his hands together remebering how nervous he really was. "I wish I did wish you good luck." Tris smiles sadly at him.

**My earliest memory of him is from when we were four years old. He scolded me for not giving my jump rope to a little girl on the playground who didn't have anything to play with.**

"Bad way to first remember your brother." Zeke says. "I know right, I was just thinking that." Christina nods.

"Ok guys I just want to say in my defense," Tris starts suddenly feeling like she should justify what happened. "Why should I give her my jump rope? Why'd she even come to the _play_ground with nothing to _play_ with? It's called a _playground_ for a reason." Tris crosses her arms.

"Repeating an arguement we almost 12 years ago isn't going to change the fact that you should have given it to her. Caleb shoots back.

Tris makes a sound of protest

"Honey." Andrew says to her daughter. "You should've given it to her." Tris looks at her mom for help but she just nods in agreement.

"Everyone's a critique." Tris mumbles leaning back in her seat.

**He doesn't lecture me often anymore, but I have his look of disapproval memorized.**

"Ouch." Tori smirks.

"I don't have a specific look of disapproval..." Caleb argues. Tris stares at him wondering for a minute if he's joking. "Yeah you do, it's a perfect combination of mom and dad's disapproving look."

Her parents exchange a look, not knowing they had specific looks of disapproval either.

**I have tried to explain to him that my instincts are not the same as his—it didn't even enter my mind to give my seat to the Candor man on the bus—but he doesn't understand.**

"I tried too, it's just simpler for me I know the rules so I just abide to them." Caleb defends himself. "Well, you've been memorizing books in secret your whole life Caleb so, it is different."

"Just do what you're supposed to,"

**"Just do what you're supposed to,"**

"Are you mimicking me."

"A little bit plus I'm reading," Uriah explains.

**he always says. It is that easy for him. It should be that easy for me. ****My stomach wrenches. I close my eyes and keep them closed until ten minutes later, when Caleb sits down again.**

_**"So how'd it go?" I ask curiosty coursing through me. "I'm Erudite," He whispers but the whole room is silent and everyone stares at him, as if he's spoken words of death. Which in my case he might as well have.**_

"I didn't say that." Caleb says looking confused. "And I most certainly did not think that." Tris adds.

"Uriah, is that even in the book?" Lynn stretches over to try and see the book. "No I just wanted to be Tris for a while." He says.

"Uriah!" The whole room shouts. "Fine, this is what really happened... **He is plaster-pale. He pushes his palms along his legs like I do when I wipe off sweat, and when he brings them back, his fingers shake. I open my mouth to ask him something, **

"So you were going to ask." Four states. "I was going to ask if he was ok." Tris lies.

**but the words don't come. I am not allowed to ask him about his results, and he is not allowed to tell me.**

"You're a horrible liar." Eric says.

_Fooled you once. _Tris thinks to herself.

**An Abnegation volunteer speaks the next round of names. Two from Dauntless, two from Erudite, two from Amity, two from Candor, and then: "From Abnegation: Susan Black and Beatrice Prior."**

**I get up because I'm supposed to, but if it were up to me, I would stay in my seat for the rest of time. I feel like there is a bubble in my chest that expands more by the second, threatening to break me apart from the inside. I follow Susan to the exit. **

**The people I pass probably can't tell us apart. We wear the same clothes and we wear our blond hair the same way. **

"Nice description of me." Susan says giving Tris a thumbs up.

"Haha," Uriah laughs. "Get it because you just said she looks like you."

"I got it."

**The only difference is that Susan might not feel like she's going to throw up, **

"I did, but not for the same reasons, I was more worried the test was going to be painful or something. I knew I wanted to stay in Abnegation."

**and from what I can tell, her hands aren't shaking so hard she has to clutch the hem of her shirt to steady them.**

**Waiting for us outside the cafeteria is a row of ten rooms. They are used only for the aptitude tests, so I have never been in one before. Unlike the other rooms in the school, they are separated, not by glass, but by mirrors. **

"Why not bricks, plaster, stone." Violet says.

**I watch myself, pale and terrified, walking toward one of the doors. Susan grins nervously at me as she walks into room 5, and I walk into room 6, where a Dauntless woman waits for me.**

**She is not as severe-looking as the young Dauntless I have seen. She has small, dark, angular eyes and wears a black blazer—like a man's suit—and jeans. It is only when she turns to close the door that I see a tattoo on the back of her neck, a black-and-white hawk with a red eye. **

_So she gets a big description._ Susan thinks glumly. She suddenly realizes the error of her ways, and scolds herself for thinking so selfishly. She decides then that she'll concentrate on the book instead of her own significance.

**If I didn't feel like my heart had migrated to my throat, I would ask her what it signifies. It must signify something.**

"You were always the curious one." Tori notes.

**Mirrors cover the inner walls of the room. I can see my reflection from all angles: the gray fabric obscuring the shape of my back, my long neck, my knobby-knuckled hands, red with a blood blush. **

_She always describes herself badly._ Four thinks to himself sneaking a glance at Tris. Who seems to be concentrating intensely on her hands.

**The ceiling glows white with light. In the center of the room is a reclined chair, like a dentist's, with a machine next to it. It looks like a place where terrible things happen. ****"Don't worry," the woman says, "it doesn't hurt." ****Her hair is black and straight, but in the light I see that it is streaked with gray. **

**"Have a seat and get comfortable," she says. "My name is Tori."**

**Clumsily I sit in the chair and recline, putting my head on the headrest. The lights hurt my eyes. Tori busies herself with the machine on my right. I try to focus on her and not on the wires in her hands. ****"Why the hawk?" I blurt out as she attaches an electrode to my forehead.**

**"Never met a curious Abnegation before," she says, raising her eyebrows at me. ****I shiver, and goose bumps appear on my arms. My curiosity is a mistake, a betrayal of Abnegation values.**

"I'm slowly seeing why you changed to Dauntless, Tris..." Andrew Prior whispers but the whole room goes silent. "How can you say such things?" Marcus says appalled.

"It's just she loves the way we live, and still tries to abide to it so why not continue that but into a different faction. Either way the decisions done."

Tris smiles warmly at her father. "Thank you." She wipes at her eyes quickly. She couldn't believe her dad finally kind of, accepted her choice to change. The image she once had of him of disappointment, betrayal and sadness is replaced with him right now and she permanently sticks it in her head with hope.

**Humming a little, she presses another electrode to my forehead and explains, "In some parts of the ancient world, the hawk symbolized the sun. Back when I got this, I figured if I always had the sun on me, I wouldn't be afraid of the dark."**

**I try to stop myself from asking another question, but I can't help it. "You're afraid of the dark?"**

You're afraid of the dark?" Zeke repeats raising an eyebrow. "You know I'm not anymore."

**"I was afraid of the dark," she corrects me. She presses the next electrode to her own forehead, and attaches a wire to it. She shrugs. "Now it reminds me of the fear I've overcome." ****She stands behind me. I squeeze the armrests so tightly the redness pulls away from my knuckles. She tugs wires toward her, attaching them to me, to her, to the machine behind her. ****Then she passes me a vial of clear liquid.**

**"Drink this," she says.**

**"What is it?" My throat feels swollen. I swallow hard. "What's going to happen?"**

**"Can't tell you that. Just trust me." ****I press air from my lungs and tip the contents of the vial into my mouth. ****My eyes close.**

Peter and Eric lean in, in anticipation. They've both been waiting for this moment.

**When they open, an instant has passed, but I am somewhere else. I stand in the school cafeteria again, but all the long tables are empty, and I see through the glass walls that it's snowing. On the table in front of me are two baskets. In one is a hunk of cheese, and in the other, a knife the length of my forearm. ****Behind me, a woman's voice says, "Choose."**

**"Why?" I ask.**

"Only you would ask that." Four comments bluntly.

**"Choose," she repeats. ****I look over my shoulder, but no one is there. I turn back to the baskets. "What will I do with them?"**

**"Choose!" she yells. **

**When she screams at me, my fear disappears and stubbornness replaces it. I scowl and cross my arms.**

Christina laughs. "Real mature Tris."

"She screamed at me, last I checked simulated people aren't supposed to do that."

**"Have it your way," she says.**

"I think you somehow managed to make a simulated women angry." Cara sighs. Caleb begins laughing.

**The baskets disappear. I hear a door squeak and turn to see who it is. I see not a "who" but a "what": A dog with a pointed nose stands a few yards away from me. It crouches low and creeps toward me, its lips peeling back from its white teeth. A growl gurgles from deep in its throat, and I see why the cheese would have come in handy. Or the knife. But it's too late now.**

"Well, yeah obviously." Alexandra says. "Don't you wish you took something now."

**I think about running, but the dog will be faster than me. **

"I thought of running too." Susan says.

**I can't wrestle it to the ground.**

"I did." Eric says.

**My head pounds. I have to make a decision. If I can jump over one of the tables and use it as a shield—no, I am too short to jump over the tables, and not strong enough to tip one over. ****The dog snarls, and I can almost feel the sound vibrating in my skull.**

"You're so observant." Natalie smiles at her daughter. "I thought of all those tactics, but of course I choose something as well."

**My biology textbook said that dogs can smell fear because of a chemical secreted by human glands in a state of duress, the same chemical a dog's prey secretes. **

"Not the time to think of school." Uriah shakes his head in dissapointment.

**Smelling fear leads them to attack. The dog inches toward me, its nails scraping the floor. ****I can't run. I can't fight. Instead I breathe in the smell of the dog's foul breath and try not to think about what it just ate.**

"Simulated animals should really smell better." Christina nods agreeing with herself. "Yeah, why do they smell so bad?" Will questions.

"To make it more realistic." Zeke says as a matter of fact.

**There are no whites in its eyes, just a black gleam. ****What else do I know about dogs? I shouldn't look it in the eye. That's a sign of aggression. I remember asking my father for a pet dog when I was young, and now, staring at the ground in front of the dog's paws, I can't remember why. It comes closer, still growling. If staring into its eyes is a sign of aggression, what's a sign of submission?**

**My breaths are loud but steady. I sink to my knees. The last thing I want to do is lie down on the ground in front of the dog—making its teeth level with my face—but it's the best option I have. I stretch my legs out behind me and lean on my elbows. The dog creeps closer, and closer, until I feel its warm breath on my face. My arms are shaking.**

**It barks in my ear, and I clench my teeth to keep from screaming. ****Something rough and wet touches my cheek. The dog's growling stops, and when I lift my head to look at it again, it is panting. It licked my face. I frown and sit on my heels. The dog props its paws up on my knees and licks my chin.**

Most of the room breathed out a sigh of relief and straighten from their leaned in position.

"Wait how did you do that? I didn't even know that was an option." Caleb raises an eyebrow." I didn't know dogs responded to that and I know a lot about animals."

Tris shrugs it off. "You know a lot about everything." It works everyone laughs.

**I cringe, wiping the drool from my skin, and laugh. ****"You're not such a vicious beast, huh?"**

"Ugh dog drool, nasty." Christina cringes.

**I get up slowly so I don't startle it, but it seems like a different animal than the one that faced me a few seconds ago. I stretch out a hand, carefully, so I can draw it back if I need to. The dog nudges my hand with its head. I am suddenly glad I didn't pick up the knife. ****I blink, and when my eyes open, a child stands across the room wearing a white dress. She stretches out both hands and squeals, "Puppy!"**

**As she runs toward the dog at my side, I open my mouth to warn her, but I am too late. The dog turns. Instead of growling, it barks and snarls and snaps, and its muscles bunch up like coiled wire. About to pounce. I don't think, I just jump;**

"What?!" Most of the room shouts.

**I hurl my body on top of the dog, wrapping my arms around its thick neck. ****My head hits the ground. The dog is gone, and so is the little girl. ****Instead I am alone—in the testing room, now empty. I turn in a slow circle and can't see myself in any of the mirrors.**

**I push the door open and walk into the hallway, but it isn't a hallway; it's a bus, and all the seats are taken.**

"A bus..." Marcus murmurs more to himself.

**I stand in the aisle and hold on to a pole. Sitting near me is a man with a newspaper. I can't see his face over the top of the paper, but I can see his hands. They are scarred, like he was burned, and they clench around the paper like he wants to crumple it.**

**"Do you know this guy?" he asks. He taps the picture on the front page of the newspaper. The headline reads: "Brutal Murderer Finally Apprehended!" I stare at the word "murderer." It has been a long time since I last read that word, but even its shape fills me with dread.**

"What, we get murder all the time it's so, so common." Alexandra laughs weakly at the morbid joke.

She stops abruptly. "I know we were a sad generation."

**In the picture beneath the headline is a young man with a plain face and a beard. I feel like I do know him, though I don't remember how. And at the same time, I feel like it would be a bad idea to tell the man that. ****"Well?" I hear anger in his voice. "Do you?"**

**A bad idea—no, a very bad idea. My heart pounds and I clutch the pole to keep my hands from shaking, from giving me away. If I tell him I know the man from the article, something awful will happen to me. But I can convince him that I don't. I can clear my throat and shrug my shoulders—but that would be a lie. ****I clear my throat. **

**"Do you?" he repeats. ****I shrug my shoulders.**

"Stop having constipated shoulders and answer." Christina shakes her by the shoulders as if she was still in the simulation and this would help. The room erupts in laughter.

**"Well?" A**** shudder goes through me. My fear is irrational; this is just a test, it isn't real.**

"It isn't real." Eric repeats in wonder.

"It isn't real." The murmur goes around the room as they all repeat it, in realization. "I've never thought of that during the tests I always thought of it as if it was a real situation." Will says, most people in the room nod.

"You're supposed to do that." Caleb answers. "It's meant for that, to teach us how to handle real life situations that's hard to control."

"Have you always looked at it like that Tris?" Cara asks. Tris knew Cara didn't know she was making the situation worse but she couldn't help but be angry at her.

"No," She says bluntly. "I haven't."

**"Nope," I say, my voice casual. "No idea who he is."**

"Liar!" Uriah shouts. "Ok I lied too." He adds. "But liar never the less!"

"The smart choice was to say no." Zeke says thoughtfully. "The honest maybe noble thing was to say yes."

**He stands, and finally I see his face. He wears dark sunglasses and his mouth is bent into a snarl. His cheek is rippled with scars, like his hands. He leans close to my face. His breath smells like cigarettes. **

**Not real, I remind myself. Not real.**

"That is so strange I need to remember that mantra." Marlene says determined.

"You're changing the whole objective of this." Cara mumbles angrily. She repeats it louder so everyone can hear her. "Treat it real, it could really happen."

"When am I ever going to get locked in a room with a dog, a hunk of cheese, and a knife?" Tris asks incredulous.

"Not that!" Both the girls are fuming now. "All of it, you probably do treat them all like that. You're defeating the whole purpose."

"You're a defeating purpose," Tris shoots back. "Why don't you handle them your way and I'll handle them mine."

"Why don't you shove that your way, my way junk up your long nos-"

"Ladies, ladies." Uriah says in between laughter. "You're both pretty now can we continue."

They both glare at each other for a while before the two begin laughing. The whole room was already watching in amusement so it doesn't take long for the laughter to increase.

"Ok... that was useless." Peter mumbles.

**"You're lying," he says. "You're lying!"**

**"I am not."**

**"I can see it in your eyes." ****I pull myself up straighter. "You can't."**

**"If you know him," he says in a low voice, "you could save me. You could save me!"**

"Aaw shame, I told him I know him." Susan says in a pitying voice. Robert gives her a surprising look . "What, we're reading her mind I figured I should say some secrets as well."

**I narrow my eyes. "Well," I say. I set my jaw. "I don't."**

"Harsh ending." Uriah says closing the book, with a slap. "I need to un- hear what I just heard."

Alexandra and Violet exchange a look before Violet speaks, "How about a break and some food?"

"Great, I'm starved." Uriah says abandoning the book on the couch and heading to the toilet. "and I've needed to pee for like 12 minutes."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Thank you to all my new followers and favourites, I feel the looove. Sorry for spelling errors. Also is it stimulated or simulated? I keep getting confused with that.<strong>_

_**Until next time xoxoIvory outxoxo**_


	4. Chapter 4 (prt one)

"I don't want to go, you go!" Alexandra whisper shouts to Violet. "I am not leaving you here alone with your little crush." Violet answers handing her back the purple balls.

"I won't try anything I swear." Alexandra pleads.

"Fine." She agrees. Alexandra could tell when she was lying so she quickly shoves the balls in her hands and takes a few steps back. Violet winks before throwing the balls on the ground behind the brown haired girl. She gasps in suprise just before Violet pushes her. She stumbles into the opening portal.

"You're evi-" She vanishes.

"We'll be back soon." Violet says. "Oh, bring burgers." Uriah bursts through the bathroom door speaking in a rush. Violet smirks. "We'll bring something even better." Then jumps in after Alexandra.

* * *

><p>The whole room stares at the meal in confusion and astonishment. "What is that?" Tris asks tilting her head to the side. "It's a baked Italian dish." Violet explains cutting it in slices. "Wide, flat pasta strips," Alexandra continues handing them plates. "With meat or vegetable if you prefer, cheese and tomato sauce."<p>

"How peculiar." Cara says taking a plate from Will. "_Cheese? _With pasta _and_ meat? Sounds to put it simply, gross."

"It great and very famous, well at least it used to be." Alexandra corrects herself. "What's it called." Caleb asks bringing the plate up to eye level and ananlysing each layer.

"Lasagna." Violet answers. "Alexandras' choice."

"Well if no one's going to try first." Uriah takes a huge bite. Everyone stares at him expectantly. "This is the best thing i've ever tasted!" He takes another, and another. "Ever." He repeats it over, and over in between bites.

One by one everyone takes a bite; Tris, Marlene, Susan, Four and so follows.

"Oh wow." "This is really good."

"Delicious."

Alexandra smiles. "So i'm guessing you guys like it."

Soon everyone separates chatting amongst themseleves; The Priors having a small reunion, Zeke, Four and Tori begin whispering amongst themselves, Eric and Violet seemed to be having a glaring competition while Alexandra babbled endlessly to Peter who actually smiled occasionally. The rest wondered around through the other doors, to explore.

"Four could Violet and I talk to you for a second?" Alexandra asks tearing her eyes away from Peter. Four nods and the three make their way to the kitchen, a pair of round eyes following their every move. A few minutes later they emerge Four pale as ever, Violet and Alexandra with matching worried expressions.

Four glances uneasily at Tris before sitting back down. After 30 minutes and Uriah's had his 3rd plate of food everyone agrees to begin reading again. "I'll read." Christina says eagerly.

Tris squirms a bit in her seat. "Maybe we should skip this chapter."

"Why?" Eric and Peter ask simultaneously. "Why do we need to read every single part of it anyway?"

"Tris, we've read the books an-" Alexandra starts. "Wait, books?" Christina asks. "How many are their?" "Only 3, but..." Violet answers looking at Four.

He shakes his head.

"We won't read them all it." Alexandra quickly buts in. "Also hopefully we'll only need to read the first book on Tris's point of view."

"Well fine, then just read." Tris sighs. Uriah chucks the book at Christina and she flips it open to chapter 3. "I'll decide the name after."

**CHAPTER THREE**

"Wait instead i'll call it; chapter I haven't decided on a name yet."

**I WAKE TO sweaty palms and a pang of guilt in my chest. **

"At least you feel guilty about lying." Susan notes. "Sounds like a one night stand." Alexandra mumbles to herself.

**I am lying in the chair in the mirrored room. When I tilt my head back, I see Tori behind me. She pinches her lips together and removes electrodes from our heads. **

Eric's hand inches towards his knife hidden in his halter and Peter leans forward in anticipation.

**I wait for her to say something about the test—that it's over, or that I did well, although how could I do poorly on a test like this?—but she says nothing, just pulls the wires from my forehead.**

"Not a good sign." Will muses. Christina nudges him in the side playfully.

**I sit forward and wipe my palms off on my slacks. I had to have done something wrong, even if it only happened in my mind. Is that strange look on Tori's face because she doesn't know how to tell me what a terrible person I am? I wish she would just come out with it.**

"So do we." Marlene adds.

"I'm sure it was fine." Andrew says trying to relax his daughter, though he knows the test is long over.

**"That," she says, "was perplexing. Excuse me, I'll be right back."**

_"Perplexing?"_ Will says thoughtfully.

_"Perplexing?"_ Caleb repeats. "Would you say that's a good sign or bad sign?" Will looks at Tris now. "I'm not sure."

**Perplexing?**

"Haha, you know you think a lot like a Erudite." Uriah says. Tris fakes a smile nodding meakly.

**I bring my knees to my chest and bury my face in them. I wish I felt like crying, because the tears might bring me a sense of release, but I don't. **

"You sound like a baby." Peter chuckles.

**How can you fail a test you aren't allowed to prepare for? ****As the moments pass, I get more nervous.**

"Where could you possibly have gone?" Eric looks suspiciously at Tori. "You know the rules don't leave them alone." She looks at the ground then back at him. "You'll find out why I did soon."

Eric's hand rests at the side of his boot, "I guess I will." Four watches him closely tapping his foot nervously. He was glad Violet and Alexandra told him to watch out for Eric, but not they'll also have to tell everyone about their relationship.

**I have to wipe off my hands every few seconds as the sweat collects—or maybe I just do it because it helps me feel calmer. What if they tell me that I'm not cut out for any faction? **

"Has that ever happened?" Uriah asks taking a huge forkful of lasagne from his 4th plate.

"Only a handful of times." Tori shrugs. "Though all their reactions are horrible."

**I would have to live on the streets, with the factionless. I can't do that. To live factionless is not just to live in poverty and discomfort; it is to live divorced from society, separated from the most important thing in life: community.**

"Whoa, they sure drill that in your head." Alexandra comments dryly. "Fitting in isn't the most important thing in the world."

"It's not exactly our fault, we've been told this from birth. Faction before blood." Caleb says. "If we grew up in you're time we wouldn't be the pople we are today."

"So the Divergents are the only one who don't conform, must be nice." Cara sighs. Some of them nod.

**My mother told me once that we can't survive alone, but even if we could, we wouldn't want to. Without a faction, we have no purpose and no reason to live.**

"Um food, find you're purpose in the world, the feeling of just being alive." Alexandra ticks off her fingers.

"How do we do or have that without a faction?" Andrew asks. Alexandra looks expectantly Tris. "You go beyond the fence," She says in realization. "Away from being forced into one category where maybe we could fin-"

"We already talked about that." Lynn reminds her. "Yeah but, ugh." Tris sighs in defeat.

**I shake my head. I can't think like this. I have to stay calm.**

"I'm just saying I wouldn't be calm." Robert admits.

**Finally the door opens, ****and Tori walks back in. I grip the arms of the chair. "Sorry to worry you," Tori says. She stands by my feet with her hands in her pockets. She looks tense and pale.**

The remainder of the people who don't already know Tris's Divergent automatically lean in, the same question in their head.

"Pale?" Eric breathes. "Tense? Sounds like bad news."

**"Beatrice, your results were..." **

Christina stops mid sentence and stares at Tris in surprise, before breathing the word out. "Inconclusive."

The room is silent, Uriah drops his plate snapping everyone back into reality.

And then it happens, Eric and Peter all at once. Eric pulls the knife from his boot hurtling it to Tris's head she ducks but he's out of his chair lunging towards her. Four who's been waiting for this to happen tackles him to the ground. "She's Divergent, you should be helping me not protecting her! You bastard" Eric spits in his face, kneeing him in the stomach.

Peter who looks like a maniac trying to escape from Alexandra's hard grip starts shouting at her. "You cheater! I knew it this whole time! I knew I should've reported you. No I should've killed you when I had the chance." Tori and Will launch at Peter to help Alexandra who's loosing her grip.

Violet looks at the two outraged men calmly before scanning the rest of the room. Uriah and Zeke help hold Eric back while Alexandras still shouting at a restless Peter to calm down. The rest of the room share almost the same expressions; disbelieve, horror, realization...

"I'll get you Stiff, but you're the one that changed her results right?" Eric says fighting against the three guys but glaring at Tori now. "Congratulations, you're both factionless now, congratulations. Even better I'll throw you both into the chasm after this is over." Eric releases himself before leaving the room.

"I'm sorry for doing this Peter."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Peter shouts at Alexandra. She slips the tranquilizer needle out of her pocket before stabbing him in the arm, he collapses in her arms seconds later.

"It won't last long." She explains. "It's just used to calm people, doesn't hurt them." She throws the other tranquilizer to Violet who waits at the door Eric left through expectantly. Gunshots, swearing and clatter of kitchen uitensils are heard before Violet comes out dragging Eric's body. "Damn thing, found my guns and tried to kill me."

Alexandra and Violet tie the two men to single chairs before apologizing to everyone. "Sorry you all had to see that, but we knew something along the lines would happe-"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Christina asks quietly, what just took place forgotten. The room falls into an awkward silence. "I mean I'm your best friend, _we're_ your best friends." She gestures to Will and the rest of the gang. "How could you not?"

"Christina, did you not just see what hapened? Imagine this but 100 times worse because everyone would want to kill me. I wouldn't be able to run or hide, the fear consumed me. I'm sorry and I did think of telling at least, after the final test maybe..." She trailed off.

"Any other secrets you want to share?" She crosses her arms. Tris debates whether to tell them about her and Four. "_Before_ we find out." Christina adds.

Four's about to speak when Tris answers quickly. "Nothing." The flash of disappointment on Four's face doesn't go unnoticed.

"Expect that I'm sorry, dad and Caleb I wish I had a chance to tell you before but.." Caleb still looks shocked and her dad seemed to be giving her the silent treatment.

"Your father need's some time." Natalie says holding her husband hand which rarely happens in public. "You knew?" He asks his wife. "Yes."

"I think we all do." Marlene agrees leaning back in her seat and letting out a huge gush of air. "How about another break." Violet suggests the whole room agrees.

Tris did alot of talking during this break, alot of sighing too. To her father, mother, Christina all her friends it took them an hour to sort it out but everyone soon took in that Tris is a Divergent.

They wiped the blood off Four's face, cleaned the broken plate on the floor even un-stabbed the poor couch.

They were already to start reading again that is until Peter and Eric woke up...

* * *

><p><em><strong>Ending it here, thanks loyal followers and favourites. So posting part 2 of Chapter 3 in two days. Also you can't be mad because this is like over 2,000 words.<strong>_

_**xoxoIvory-outxoxo**_


	5. Chapter 4 (prt two) and Chapter 5

"What the..." Alexandra breathes a sigh of relief the tranquilizer wasn't suppposed to last that long. "Peter are you ok?" She asks. "What's going on?!" He struggles against the rope.

"The more you struggle the tighter it gets," She informs as he winces in his seat. "Had to do it."

"No what has to be done can be done, if you untie me." He said, glaring at Tris. She glares back not intimidated but worried about what he'd say. Peter had a way with words, he could make everyone turn against her in a matter of seconds. Just like Al.

He looks around the room in shock. "Why aren't you guys doing anything? She didn't trust you, any of you with her secret. She was a whizz in the fear stage and didn't even tell you her way of getting through it."

"There is no way." She defended. "What about and I quote 'This isn't real.'"

"That was just something that came to me I didn't think i-" "Exactly you didn't think about anyone but yourself!" He spat. Tris sat in furious silence she didn't need to convince him. She didn't care what Peter thought of her.

He continued. "Did you see how fast Christina looked at you as if you were someone else, they all turned on you faster than you could say Divergent."

"That's enough young man." Andrew spoke standing up, he cleared his throat. "Now you listen hear, don't speak to my daughter like that you don't even know her. She tries her best at everything." Her mom adds. "And she always tries to think of others."

"And very trustful." Christina wraps an arm around her friend. "She's funny." Uriah adds. "And family- orientated." Caleb smiles. Peters' comments of disapproval go unheard. Four looks directly at Tris. "She's one of the most bravest people I know." The whole room stares in shock but, he's eyes are still on Tris.

"Well isn't this grand." Eric was awake. "We're all going around the room saying stuff we love about the Stiff. Even you Four wow, do you have a crush on our little initiate or she doing you?" Eric said coldly not bothering to struggle against the rope, they would have to set him free eventually.

He could wait until then.

"Don't speak of her like that." Natalie said her Dauntless seeping in. "Don't you know how disrespectful that is."

"To bad I don't care about what an_ Abnegation_ says about me." He said it as if Abnegation's were the factionless.

"Stop." A third voice joins in the conversation, heads turn to face none other than Marcus Eaton. Who's been silent through most of the book. "Please. This isn't right. We're all from different factions, yes, but we should be able to finish this one book without having to argue."

His eyes scanned the room. "Let's just all calm down and finish this chapter." Tris stares at him in surprise, this act he had going was irritating her.

"Basically he's saying shut up, before I shoot you again." Violet adds glaring at Eric. "Not exactl-"

"Look," She interrupts Marcus. "We have a certain deadline to finish this book and all of this," She gestures to Eric and Peter. "kind of ruined our schedule."

"So we need to finish two chapters now." Alexandra declares. Violet nods. "So we'll need to be quick, ok?" She looks round the room. "OK?!" She repeats. They all nod, even Peter and Eric.

"Um... where were we, ah right, I-N-C-O-N-C-L-U-S-I-V-E." Christina frowns. Tris sighs. "Christina."

"Sorry, Peter got to me a bit."

**"Beatrice, your results were inconclusive," she says.**

"_Seriously_ Christina."

"It was in the book."

**"Typically, each stage of the simulation eliminates one or more of the factions, but in your case, only two have been ruled out."**

"Whoa you have three factions, who wants to bet one is Erudite." Uriah smirks. "You're so on." Will says. Tris smiles glad someone was lighting the mood.

**I stare at her. "Two?" I ask. My throat is so tight it's hard to talk.**

**"If you had shown an automatic distaste for the knife and selected the cheese, the simulation would have led you to a different scenario that confirmed your aptitude for Amity. That didn't happen, which is why Amity is out." Tori scratches the back of her neck. "Normally, the simulation progresses in a linear fashion, isolating one faction by ruling out the rest. The choices you made didn't even allow Candor, the next possibility, to be ruled out, so I had to alter the simulation to put you on the bus. And there your insistence upon dishonesty ruled out Candor." She half smiles. "Don't worry about that. Only the Candor tell the truth in that one."**

"Yes! Cough it up." Will slams a bill in his hand.

**One of the knots in my chest loosens. Maybe I'm not an awful person.**

"_Maybe I'm not an awful person_." Peter mimics in a high, girlish voice.

**"I suppose that's not entirely true. ****People who tell the truth are the Candor…and the Abnegation," she says. "Which gives us a problem." ****My mouth falls open.**

**"On the one hand, you threw yourself on the dog rather than let it attack the little girl, which is an Abnegation-oriented response…but on the other, when the man told you that the truth would save him, you still refused to tell it. Not an Abnegation-oriented response." She sighs. "Not running from the dog suggests Dauntless, but so does taking the knife, which you didn't do."**

"You sure were a confusing one." Zeke laughs scratching the back of his neck. "Kind of glad I don't do the tests."

**She clears her throat and continues. "Your intelligent response to the dog indicates strong alignment with the Erudite. I have no idea what to make of your indecision in stage one, but—"**

**"Wait," I interrupt her. "So you have no idea what my aptitude is?"**

"I think she does." Caleb calculates a result of his own in his head. "If she doesn't then I do."

**"Yes and no. My conclusion," she explains, "is that you display equal aptitude for Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite. People who get this kind of result are…" **

"I also got those." Caleb said proudly.

**She looks over her shoulder like she expects someone to appear behind her. **

"Why would someone magically appear behind you." Marlene laughs soon joined by most of the room. "Well you never know."

**"…are called…**

"Divergent." Uriah whispers in a creepy voice. "And it's up to you to save... yo mama."

"Excuse me." Natalie says. "Sorry ma'am."

**Divergent." She says the last word so quietly that I almost don't hear it, and her tense, worried look returns. She walks around the side of the chair and leans in close to me.**

"Lesbian moment!" Uriah and Alexandra scream. Four pales, along with Tris's father and brother. "No!" Tris screams seeing their expressions.

"In her dreams." Tori laughs. Lynn feels uneasy she didn't want people to find out about her and these jokes were making her uncomfortable.

**"Beatrice," she says,**

_"In a low voice filled with lust._" Uriah interrupts beginning to narrate the story his way. "_I think I'm in love with you."_

Alexandra catches on and continues for him. _"I want make sweet Divergent love to you."_

_"And-"_

Peter tells them to shut up. He's frustrated, uncomfortable and a little jealous Alexandra isn't paying attention to him anymore.

**"under no circumstances should you share-"**

_"What we're about to do in this room."_ Uriah begins to laugh again.

**"that information with anyone. This is very important."**

**"We aren't supposed to share-"**

_"Our love."_ The two laughing teens say.

**"our results." I nod. "I know that."**

**"No." Tori kneels next to the chair now and places her arms ****on the armrest. Our faces are inches apart.**

"Oh come on, this sentence is begging for it." Uriah bursts, Alexandra nods holding back a snort. "Their faces are inches apart."

"Was her breathe bad?" Uriah asks. "How close we talking?" Alexandra questions suggestively. "We should call this section; Lesbain moments." He says.

"No, let's call it Tori and me." She laughs. The two go silent under Christina's intense glare.

**"This is different. I don't mean you shouldn't share them now; I mean you should never share them with anyone, ever, no matter what happens. Divergence is extremely dangerous. You understand?"**

**I don't understand—how could inconclusive test results be dangerous?—but I still nod. **

"I thought you understood." Tori says obviously disappointed. "No wonder you still came looking for me." Uriah and Alexandra laugh again the same thought in their heads.

Tori continues ignoring the two. "Tris, do you understand now?"

"Yes, it took a while it means I don't fit into the 'perfect' system we've created over the years. That I stand out." Tris answers glancing at Eric and Peter.

**I don't want to share my test results with anyone anyway.**

"Did you tell someone, though?" Christina questions. "Yes, don't ask who you'll find out later." Tris adds quickly thinking of her mom and Four. Did she do the right thing telling them? She hopes so.

**"Okay." I peel my hands from the arms of the chair and stand. I feel unsteady. ****"I suggest," Tori says, "that you go home. You have a lot of thinking to do, and waiting with the others may not benefit you."**

**"I have to tell my brother where I'm** **going."**

"Always thinking of others." Caleb smiles.

**"I'll let him know."**

**I touch my forehead and stare at the floor as I walk out of the room. I can't bear to look her in the eye.**

"I never said thank you." Tris realizes. "I'm sorry about that, you saved my life and I didn't even realize it."

"You didn't know." Tori shrugs it off. "Well I do now, so thank you... for everything."

"You're welcome."

**I can't bear to think about the Choosing Ceremony tomorrow. ****It's my choice now, no matter what the test says. ****Abnegation. Dauntless. Erudite.**

"It wasn't that difficult was it? You already knew what you wanted." Robert said. "Not exactly I was debating until the point where I cut my hand with the knife." Tris breathes remembering how guilty she felt. "It was selfless against courage."

**Divergent.**

"That word's kind of cool." Marlene says. "Divergent."

"Oh my gosh!" Uriah shouts suddenly. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" He looks at Alexandra. Who begins laughing uncontrollably. "Yes!"

"Have you guys ever noticed that Divergent sounds a lot like-" Uriah cuts himself off laughing as well. "What?!" Tris screams at them.

"Die virgin!" Alexander finishes, wiping a few tears away. Tris' mouth drops open, as the rest of the room laugh as well.

"Dad!" She says in horror even her family was laughing at her. Even the bastard Marcus. Will finally settles down. "Ok, ok, ugh my stomach hurts."

"Die virgin." Uriah snorts just before Will reads again.

**I decide not to take the bus. If I get home early, my father will notice when he checks the house log at the end of the day, **

"Hmm." Her dad grumbles in his seat.

**and I'll have to explain what happened. Instead I walk. I'll have to intercept Caleb before he mentions anything to our parents, but Caleb can keep a secret.**

Caleb nods before Tris adds, "I think we all know that. Mr Erudite." She thinks back on the books she saw in his room, that day.

**I walk in the middle of the road.**

"Where we're from, walk in the middle of the road and you're sure to get hit by a car or bus." Violet states.

**The buses tend to hug the curb, so it's safer here. Sometimes, on the streets near my house, I can see places where the yellow lines used to be. We have no use for them now that there are so few cars. **

Alexandra pouts childishly. "Few cars?! That hurts when I turned 16 and I didn't have a car I was totally shunned."

"Why would you need cars." Will asks.

"Well we drove everywhere, shops, school, work even down the road to visit a friend. Cars were everywhere."

**We don't need stoplights, either, but in some places they dangle precariously over the road like they might crash down any minute. **

"I've never realised how dangerous that is." Marcus thinks aloud. "We must discuss it at our next meeting." He looks at Andrew, who nods.

**Renovation moves slowly through the city, which is a patchwork of new, clean buildings and old, crumbling ones. **

"How are the buildings and renovations in your time?" Caleb asks intrigued. "Well instead of explaining it let me show you." Alexandra quickly drops a single purple ball on the floor and sticks her upper torso through the small portal. When she finds what she was searching for she emerges with a dark blue sort of tablet with a blank screen.

After taping a few buttons, a huge hologram of a city appears. "Ok now what you see here is a city that suffered a massive natural disater," The image shifted, it was still the city but with a great amount damage. "But unlike you guys, their problem was they were rebuild so quickly that their plant's were reducing and it was hard to breathe."

The room stared in astonishment at the images shifting form the people in masks, to images of different buildings."

"So the air soon became polluted from all the renovations and construction and they all began walking around with medical masks. Of couse after a while people began to become sick so they had to import trees to plant." Alexander finishes switiching off the tablet.

"How fascinating," Caleb smiles brightly like a kid in a candy shop. "What was this place called?"

"Japan." Violet says simply. "So if you could get them to come fix up this place, they'll probably be done in a few months. Instead of years, and years you guys are taking."

"That was amazing." Cara said. "Can I see that?" She extendeds her hand. Alexandra passes her the tablet. "Good luck figuring out my passwor-"

"Got it... who's Miles Teller?" She asks looking up at Alexandra.

"Nobody!"

** "Well m****ost of the new buildings are next to the marsh, which used to be a lake a long time ago. The Abnegation volunteer agency my mother works for is responsible for most of those renovations.**

Susan opens her mouth to speak and closes it again. "What?" Caleb whispers to her. "That lake would look great if we filled it up." She whispers back. Caleb smiles fondly at her.

**When I look at the Abnegation lifestyle as an outsider, I think it's beautiful. When I watch my family move in harmony; when we go to dinner parties and everyone cleans together afterward without having to be asked; when I see Caleb help strangers carry their groceries, I fall in love with this life all over again.**

Her mother and father exchange a sad smile.

**It's only when I try to live it myself that I have trouble. It never feels genuine.**

Christina rubs her back sympathetically. "I'm sure you were a great Abnegation."

Tris smiles a little but shakes her head.

**But choosing a different faction means I forsake my family. Permanently.**

"That was the reason?" Her dad asked. "You didn't want to leave us."

"Of course I didn't want to leave you, any of you." Tris explains gesturing to Caleb and her mom. "It was one of the hardest decisions I had to make."

Her father nods.

**Just past the Abnegation sector of the city is the stretch of building skeletons and broken sidewalks that I now walk through. There are places where the road has completely collapsed, revealing sewer systems and empty subways that I have to be careful to avoid, and places that stink so powerfully of sewage and trash that I have to plug my nose.**

"That's absolutely disgusting, why don't you guys clean that part up?" Violet questioned scrunching her nose in disgust.

"Well we tried but, the factions agreed it was to dangerous." Marcus said.

**This is where the factionless live. **

Alexandra looks shocked for a minute but doesn't say anything.

**Because they failed to complete initiation into whatever faction they chose, they live in poverty, doing the work no one else wants to do. They are janitors and construction workers and garbage collectors; they make fabric and operate trains and drive buses. In return for their work they get food and clothing, but, as my mother says, not enough of either.**

"What?" Alexandra whipers before pushing out of her chair, she rushes out the room the door slamming shut.

A silence fills the room, until Violet stands up and follows through the door Alexandra left through. She comes back a few seconds later a guilty look on her face. "She left," She quickly adds. "she'll be back, just needs to cool off."

"What just happened?" Cara asked, placing the tablet on the table.

Violet explains to the group about Alexandras' hard life and how she suffered a lot until the DUTT recruited her at age 15.

Natalie grimaced. "Oh, thats' horrid." The room is silent again. Christina shakes herself out of her daze. "Uh we should continue."

**I see a factionless man standing on the corner up ahead. He wears ragged brown clothing and skin sags from his jaw. He stares at me, and I stare back at him, unable to look away.**

Caleb questions unsurely. "H- how are you... unable to... look away?"

"He was just staring at me, and his eyes were so intense and he looked so helpless what was I supposed to do." She argues.

"Uh, look away."

**"Excuse me," he says. His voice is raspy. "Do you have something I can eat?" ****I feel a lump in my throat. A stern voice in my head says, Duck your head and keep walking. ****No. I shake my head. I should not be afraid of this man. He needs help and I am supposed to help him.**

Her mom and dad nod approvingly.

**"Um…yes," I say. ****I reach into my bag. My father tells me to keep food in my bag at all times for exactly this reason. **

"Daddy knows best." Violet murmurs.

**I offer the man a small bag of dried apple slices. **

"Wow, that sounds delicious." Peter says sarcastically. "Dried apple slices. You can tell the Abnegation really care."

**He reaches for them, but instead of taking the bag, his hand closes around my wrist.**

People in the room stiffen visibly. "What happened?" Andrew, Robert, Marcus, Natalie, Four and Caleb ask at the same time.

Uriah laughs as Tris answers. "Nothing, it just left me a bit frazzled."

**He smiles at me. He has a gap between his front teeth. ****"My, don't you have pretty eyes," he says.**

"Can you say creepo." Uriah sings. "Oh jeez, I have no idea what I would do, if I was still in Candor." Christina wheezes.

**"It's a shame the rest of you is so plain."**

"Ouch." Peter snorts. Uriah starts laughing. "I'm sorry he's just so rude." No one knew if he was talking about the factionless man or Peter.

**My heart pounds. I tug my hand back, but his grip tightens.**

"Punch the douche." Lynn says getting tense. Susan looks taken back. "Violence is not the answer, keep tugging and tell him you'll scream if he doesn't let go."

**I smell something acrid and unpleasant on his breath. ****"Maybe you should try giving toothbrushes." Eric mumbles.**

**"You look a little young to be walking around by yourself, dear," he says. ****I stop tugging, and stand up straighter. I know I look young; I don't need to be reminded. **

"Haha, you're so funny when you angry." Robert says laughing. Christina and Uriah join. "She looks like a kitten."

Tris huffs and most of the room joins in on the laughter.

**"I'm older than I look," I retort. "I'm sixteen." ****His lips spread wide, revealing a gray molar with a dark pit in the side. I can't tell if he's smiling or grimacing. "Then isn't today a special day for you? The day before you choose?"**

**"Let go of me," I say. **

"Sweetheart," Tris's mom looks at her worried. "Did this used to happen often?" She shakes her head. "That was the first time."

"You should of told us though, this is why you don't walk home alone." Her father scolds. "Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore," Marlene butts in. "She'd beat the hell out of them."

"Not something an Abnegation father wants to hear." Tris mumbles.

**I hear ringing in my ears. My voice sounds clear and stern—not what I expected to hear. I feel like it doesn't belong to me. ****I am ready. ****I know what to do. I**** picture myself bringing my elbow back and hitting him. I see the bag of apples flying away from me. I hear my running footsteps.**

"You wouldn't really do that would you?" Susan asked suprised. "Well if I needed to I would."

**I am prepared to act.**

**But then he releases my wrist, ****takes the apples, **

Four immediately relaxes and releases a sharp breath. Tris notices and smiles, he was worried. "Oh my," Natalie says. "How's your wrist?"

"Fine." Tris answers.

**and says, "Choose wisely, little girl."**

"That was intense." Christina says handing Will the book. "Most dramatic chapter yet, on the bright side I figured out a name." Tris gives her a look. "What?"

Christina smiles proudly. "Inconclusive."

"Good name, actually." Zeke nods. "Should we wait for Alexandra?" Tori questions eyeing the door. "No let's continue." Violet says.

* * *

><p>"That was looong, and I'm hungry." Uriah whines. "And the lasagna's cold."<p>

"Well, better food then no food at all." Violet says. "Fine," He mumbles taking the plate Susan cut for him, when he said he was hungry. "Thanks Su."

"Su?" She smiles. "I've never had a nickname before." Caleb sees this. "Well, Susan's to beautiful a name to change." She flushes before sitting back down next to him.

_Challenge accepted,_ Uriah thinks to himself. "I completely agree, but it's always nice to think of a nickname for someone who you like. Su is a great name for my great new friend."

"You don't need to give someone a nickname for them to be special to you." Susans' face turns redder and she stares at the table, not used to all this attention. "True but the effort is most probably appreciated." Caleb goes silent.

"I like the nickname, thank you." Susan lifts her head realizing the exchange is over. "See Caleb." He says the smirk never leaving. "I can give you a nickname if you want."

"I'm fine thanks." Will looks up from the book. "Can I read?"

"Can he CaCa?" "Don't call me CaCa."

"Sorry Leb."

**CHAPTER FOUR**

**I REACH MY street five minutes before I usually do, according to my watch—which is the only adornment Abnegation allows,**

Christian gasps. "No earrings, necklaces, bracelets?"

"Sometimes a simple chain for special occasions." Natalie answers. "Unbelievable"." Marlene cries outraged.

**and only because it's practical. It has a gray band and a glass face. If I tilt it right, I can almost see my reflection over the hands.**

"You're obsessed with your reflection dude." Christina nudges her.

**The houses on my street are all the same size and shape. ****They are made of gray cement, with few windows, in economical, no-nonsense rectangles. **

"What a bore." Lynn mumbles. "How did you love this lifestyle?"

"For starters everyone was equal you didn't have to stand out be special, we all lived in a kind sort of harmony. It was simple."

**Their lawns are crabgrass and their mailboxes are dull metal. To some the sight might be gloomy, but to me their simplicity is comforting.**

"Ooooh, she just said what she just said in the book." Uriah said. "Great minds think a like." Tris shrugs.

"More like the same mind think alike." Caleb corrects.

**The reason for the simplicity isn't disdain for uniqueness, as the other factions have sometimes interpreted it.**

"I always thought you guys were just trying to be unique actually." Cara admits. "No problem dude, same here." Christina laughs.

**Everything—our houses, our clothes, our hairstyles—is meant to help us forget ourselves and to protect us from vanity, greed, and envy, which are just forms of selfishness. If we have little, and want for little, and we are all equal, we envy no one.**

"But you do." Eric stares at Tris. "You envy us Dauntless, you're vain by always trying to find a way to look at your reflection even it is by accident, and you greed to love the life you live."

"Not really," She said. "I admire the life the Dauntless live, I always accidently catch a glimpse of myself in reflections so I know how to see myself if I want too, and I do love the way Abnegation live I just want to live it properly as well."

**I try to love it.**

**I sit on the front step and wait for Caleb to arrive. It doesn't take long. After a minute I see gray-robed forms walking down the street. I hear laughter. At school we try not to draw attention to ourselves, but once we're home, the games and jokes start. **

"Hmm, not so selfless at home." Peter said. "Can I be untied now?"

Violet's face says it all.

"Never mind then..."

**My natural tendency toward sarcasm is still not appreciated. **

"Haha only Tris." Uri laughs.

**Sarcasm is always at someone's expense. Maybe it's better that Abnegation wants me to suppress it. Maybe I don't have to leave my family. Maybe if I fight to make Abnegation work, my act will turn into reality. **

"Story of my life." Marcus murmurs inaudibly.

**"Beatrice!" Caleb says. "What happened? Are you all right?"**

**"I'm fine." He is with Susan and her brother, Robert, and Susan is giving me a strange look, like I am a different person than the one she knew this morning. **

"What was up with that?" Tris asks bringing it up. "You looked like a different person, confused, pale. Also you kept touching your wrist."

**I shrug. "When the test was over, I got sick. Must have been that liquid they gave us. I feel better now, though." ****I try to smile convincingly. I seem to have persuaded Susan and Robert, who no longer look concerned for my mental stability, but Caleb narrows his eyes at me, the way he does when he suspects someone of duplicity.**

"Only you brother." Tris sighs. "Of course." Said brother smiles.

**"Did you two take the bus today?" I ask. I don't care how Susan and Robert got home from school, but I need to change the subject.**

"Haha she don't care." Uriah laughs like it's the funniest thing in the world. Marlene can't help but laugh as well. "I know right it sounds so mean." They keep laughing until Eric tells them to shut up already.

**"Our father had to work late," Susan says, "and he told us we should spend some time thinking before the ceremony tomorrow." ****My heart pounds at the mention of the ceremony. ****"You're welcome to come over later, if you'd like," Caleb says politely.**

**"Thank you." Susan smiles at Caleb. ****Robert raises an eyebrow at me. He and I have been exchanging looks for the past year ****as****-**

"Exchanging looks." Uriah says as if even the thought is outrageous. "Oh how very flirty could it be love in Abnegation."

Robert blushes. "No."

"That would be totally scandalous." He waggles his eyebrows suggestively.

**Susan and Caleb flirt in the tentative way known only to the Abnegation. **

"No we don't." They both say, they look at each other the same shade of red on their faces. "Yeah, you do." Tris and Robert say.

**Caleb's eyes follow Susan down the walk. **

Zeke laughs. "He's probably checking out her butt."

"I was just thinking that." Uriah adds. "I would never!" He said.

"Why what's wrong with it?" Zeke smirks. "Nothing... I'm sure it's fi- fine but, I wou- wouldn't do-"

"Shut up Leb, you're just making it worse." Uriah says looking at Susan's horrified face, and laughing again.

"Stop calling me Leb."

**He turns to me. His dark, straight eyebrows draw together so that a crease appears between them. When he frowns, he looks more like my mother than my father.**

Caleb's eyebrows do the exact same at that moment, they draw together and the crease appears between them. "I do not."

"You do." his mom smiles, realizing she's never noticed before. His frown deepens.

"There's nothing wrong with looking like your mommy when you're upset." Uriah pouts at him, mimicking his frown.

**In an instant I can see him living the same kind of life my father did: staying in Abnegation, learning a trade, marrying Susan, and having a family.**

"Well, I guess we'll never know." Susan sighs. She's already imagined that life for her and Caleb countless times, until he switched factions. Caleb stares guiltly at Susan he did like her- still does, he'd wanted that life but... in Erudite.

** It will be wonderful.**

"You really believed I was an Abnegation man?" Caleb asks Tris kind of amused. "We all did." His father answers instead.

**I may not see it. ****"Are you going to tell me the truth now?" he asks softly.**

"Smart." Eric praises.

**"The truth is," I say, **

"Did you tell him?!" Christina cries.

"No."

**"I'm not supposed to discuss it. And you're not supposed to ask."**

**"All those rules you bend, and you can't bend this one? Not even for something this important?" His eyebrows tug together, and he bites the corner of his lip. Though his words are accusatory, it sounds like he is probing me for information—like he actually wants my answer.**

"I did, I wanted to know if you were staying."

"Caleb, you knew I didn't fit in."

"Yeah, but you were always trying so hard, I just you know..."

Robert looks at the two his Amity traits taking over. "I think you both just assumed about the other." The two sibling look at him in confusion.

"You see," He says gesturing to Tris. "Tris you thought since Caleb was so good at being Abnegation that he'd stay." He turns to Caleb. "Caleb you assumed Tris was so hard working at Abnegation that she would stay. The problem was that you two never sat down to talk about this, because you were so busy trying to keep up your acts, that you never truly saw eachother in the way that they are."

His gaze shifts to his sister. "Susan, always knew I wanted to be Amity, I didn't need to tell her even though I did." He smiles at his sister.

"We never had this problem because we always talked to each other the way we wanted to... not had to." Susan smiles at him. "What you guys needed was a long talk, instead of always focusing on yourselves." Caleb and Tris stare guiltily at each other. "I'm sorry." They both said.

"Hug it out." Uriah whispers.

The two stand up and hug before laughing at Uriah, who seems in tears. "Oh Zeke!" He cries flinging himself off his couch and onto his brother in a big hug. "I love you, bro."

"I love you too, little brother." He says genuinely, and hugs his brother back. Cara and Will stare at each other before standing up to hug as well. "I missed you sis." They open up their arms to let Christina into the hug.

"Well, since I started this." Robert gets up to hug Susan. She giggles at her brother and stands up too. "Lynn, come here." Marlene pouts at her friend who snickers before embracing her friend. Marcus looks at his son, who turns away gingerly.

Eric stares in disgust as the room erupts in a hug frenzy. Him, Peter, Violet, Four and Tori being the only ones left. Even Marcus was embracing Andrew and Natalie in some sort of Abnegation way.

Christina whispers something in Tris's ear and soon all the Dauntless intiates are hugging Four. "What. Is. Happening?" He asks awkwardly. "No matter how grouchy you are, you were still a great teacher." Christina admits.

"Why are they hugging me?" He asks referring to Uriah, Zeke and Marlene. "We just like hugs." Marlene says Tris releases Four and hugs Tori. "Thanks again."

"You're welcome, die virgin." Tris laughs before releasing her. After the hugging frenzy is over and everyone sat down. "See Peace isn't all bad." Robert says proudly.

"Thanks Robert." Tris smiles. Will picks up the book.

**I narrow my eyes. "Will you? What happened in your test, Caleb?" ****Our eyes meet. I hear a train horn, so faint it could easily be wind whistling through an alleyway. But I know it when I hear it. It sounds like the Dauntless, calling me to them.**

"You have no idea how weird that sounds." Will interrupts himself. "Hearing it aloud, I kinda do." Tris blushes. "So you wanted Dauntless," Violet encourages. "You just really didn't want to leave your family?"

"Yes."

"It's kind of annoying that you're so nice." Violet states.

"I'm sorry?"

**"Just…don't tell our parents what happened, okay?" I say. ****His eyes stay on mine for a few seconds, and then he nods.**

"Naughty, lying siblings." Zeke tsks at them.

**I want to go upstairs and lie down. The test, the walk, and my encounter with the factionless man exhausted me. But my brother made breakfast this morning, and my mother prepared our lunches, and my father made dinner last night, so it's my turn to cook.**

**I breathe deeply and walk into the kitchen to start cooking. ****A minute later, Caleb joins me. I grit my teeth. He helps with everything.**

A few giggles spread through the room.

**What irritates me most about him is his natural goodness, **

The giggles turn into full on laughter.

**his inborn selflessness.**

The laughter increases. Tris shrinks in her chair, in embarrassment. "Why are you all laughing anyway?" She continues. "It's not funny."

"What irrates you most is my natural goodness." Caleb laughs. "My inborn selflessness." Tris blushes realizing how it sounds.

"It sounds like you're dissing an angel." Uriah says. "Shush up guys, Will is going to read." Tris said gesturing to Will to read.

"Actually-" He laughs. "Will, Violet says we need to finish quickly." Tris says suddenly not looking like an angry kitten at all. "Read the book."

"Right."

**Caleb and I work together without speaking. I cook peas on the stove. He defrosts four pieces of chicken. Most of what we eat is frozen or canned, because farms these days are far away. My mother told me once that, a long time ago, there were people who wouldn't buy genetically engineered produce because they viewed it as unnatural. **

"Yeah, it's nasty. Hardly anyone in our time ate that." Violet says.

** **Now we have no other option. ******By the time my parents get home, dinner is ready and the table is set. My father drops his bag at the door and kisses my head. Other people see him as an opinionated man—too opinionated, maybe—but he's also loving. I try to see only the good in him; ****I try. **

"Try?" Her father asks raising an eyebrow. "That is insulting."

"At least she tries." His wife says. Tris smiles sheepishly. "I do love you, even if people say you are to opinionated- which you aren't."

**"How did the test go?" he asks me. I pour the peas into a serving bowl. ****"Fine," I say. I couldn't be Candor. I lie too easily.**

"Not so well, but easily is true." Four says.

**"I heard there was some kind of upset with one of the tests," my mother says.**

"Ok so you tense up when someone mentions the choosing ceremony, but not when someone mentions a mishap with the tests?" Lynn points out. Tris shrugs.

**Like my father, she works for the government, but she manages city improvement projects. She recruited volunteers to administer the aptitude tests. Most of the time, though, she organizes workers to help the factionless with food and shelter and job opportunities.**

**"Really?" says my father. A problem with the aptitude tests is rare.**

**"I don't know much about it, but my friend Erin told me that something went wrong with one of the tests, so the results had to be reported verbally." My mother places a napkin next to each plate on the table. "Apparently the student got sick and was sent home early." My mother shrugs. "I hope they're all right. Did you two hear about that?"**

"Little did we know, the sick student was right underneath our noses." Natalie frowns.

**"No," Caleb says. He smiles at my mother.**

"You two should be ashamed lying so easily to us, like that." Andrew scolds his kids.

"I had to lie to you I'm not allowed to tell you." Tris defends herself, and when she saw Calebs blank face she spoke again. "And... Caleb had no idea what happened."

_Siblings stick together I should've realized that earlier_, she thinks. "Either way, we expect the truth from both of you from now on." He said sternly. They both nod while their friends snicker at them.

**My brother couldn't be Candor either. ****We sit at the table. We always pass food to the right, and no one eats until everyone is served.**

"Not at Dauntless we don't," Uriah laughs. "One for all and all for food."

Marlene stares at him. "Don't you mean all for one?"

"Nope."

**My father extends his hands to my mother and my brother, and they extend their hands to him and me, and my father gives thanks to God for food and work and friends and family. Not every Abnegation family is religious, but my father says we should try not to see those differences because they will only divide us. I am not sure what to make of that.**

"I am still not sure."

"We're one big community so if we let the fact that some of us are religious and others aren't we'll be more separated." Marcus explains, her father nods in agreement before adding. "We need to ignore the differences and focus on the similarities."

**"So," my mother says to my father. "Tell me." ****She takes my father's hand and moves her thumb in a small circle over his knuckles. **

She does the same now, suddenly feeling too far from her husband even though they were barely 10 centimeters apart.

**I stare at their joined hands.**

Tris stares at their locked hands now, as she does when ever she notices this exchange between her parents. She longs to do the same to Tobias.

**My parents love each other, but they rarely show affection like this in front of us. They taught us that physical contact is powerful, so I have been wary of it since I was young. **

"That explains a lot." Peter laughs, remembering beating up Tris.

**"Tell me what's bothering you," she adds. ****I stare at my plate. My mother's acute senses sometimes surprise me, but now they chide me. Why was I so focused on myself that I didn't notice his deep frown and his sagging posture?**

Tris runs a hand through her hair. "I'm such a horrible person sometimes."

**"I had a difficult day at work," he says. "Well, really, it was Marcus who had the difficult day. I shouldn't lay claim to it."**

Marcus and Tobias look up simultaneously.

**Marcus is my father's coworker; they are both political leaders. The city is ruled by a council of fifty people, composed entirely of representatives from Abnegation, because our faction is regarded as incorruptible, due to our commitment to selflessness. Our leaders are selected by their peers for their impeccable character, moral fortitude, and leadership skills. Representatives from each of the other factions can speak in the meetings on behalf of a particular issue, but ultimately, the decision is the council's. And while the council technically makes decisions together, Marcus is particularly influential.**

"Particularly?" Marcus asks Tris. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you have like a 48,99% opinion. People hardly agree if you don't." She says in a harsh tone.

"I'm sure that's not true."

**It has been this way since the beginning of the great peace, when the factions were formed. I think the system persists because we're afraid of what might happen if it didn't: war.**

Violet thinks ahead to the rest of the book, and the books that follow. _You got that right_, she thinks to herself.

**"Is this about that report Jeanine Matthews released?" my mother says. Jeanine Matthews is Erudite's sole representative, selected based on her IQ score. My father complains about her often. ****I look up. "A report?" C****aleb gives me a warning look.**

"I'm getting irritated by these looks," Christina says. "What are you her father?"

**We aren't supposed to speak at the dinner table unless our parents ask us a direct question, and they usually don't. Our listening ears are a gift to them, my father says. **

Uriah asks. "So what you sit their and listen to them talk?"

"Yeah." She nods. "How boring."

**They give us their listening ears after dinner, in the family room. ****"Yes," my father says. His eyes narrow. "Those arrogant, self-righteous—"**

"Sorry Caleb," Andrew apologizes. "at the time I didn't know."

"It's ok."

"So much for kindness. Dad, over there has a little temper problem." Eric teases. "Were you always an Abnegation?"

He doesn't answer and the whole room stares at him curiously. "Tell us Mr Prior." He sighs. "It is none of your business, but I was not."

Tris and Caleb stare at their father in shock. They never considered him being from a different faction. "Which one?" Caleb asks.

"No!" Violet cuts Andrew off. "Don't answer that, it's in the rule book, no answering any questions that will be revealed in the books."

**He stops and clears his throat. "Sorry. But she released a report attacking Marcus's character." ****I raise my eyebrows. ****"What did it say?" I ask. ****"Beatrice," Caleb says quietly.**

_"Beatrice."_ Christina mimics. "Don't you get tired of this guy?"

"You get used to it."

**I duck my head, turning my fork over and over and over until the warmth leaves my cheeks. I don't like to be chastised. Especially by my brother.**

**"It said," my father says, "that Marcus's violence and cruelty **

Tobias stiffens.

**toward his son **

Marcus breathes in deeply, his face calm.

**is the reason his son chose Dauntless instead of Abnegation."**

**Few people who are born into Abnegation choose to leave it. When they do, we remember. Two years ago, Marcus's son, Tobias, left us for the Dauntless, and Marcus was devastated.**

"Yeah right." Said son mumbles inaudibly.

**Tobias was his only child—and his only family, since his wife died giving birth to their second child. The infant died minutes later.**

Tobias taps his foot distractingly.

**I never met Tobias. He rarely attended community events and never joined his father at our house for dinner. My father often remarked that it was strange, but now it doesn't matter.**

"Have you ever met him?" Andrew asks the Dauntless. "No," They all say excluding Four and Eric.

"I didn't know we had a Tobias in Dauntless." Tris said, to Christina. "Me either." she nods. "Weird name though."

**"Cruel? Marcus?" My mother shakes her head. "That poor man. As if he needs to be reminded of his loss."**

**"Of his son's betrayal, you mean?" my father says coldly. **

"How is it betrayal?" Tris asks coldly as well, she's been resisting the urge since Will began reading that part to punch Marcus several times.

"How can you say that, his son was all he had left." Her dad's disapproval is evident but she's to angry to care. "The son left for a reason," Tris looks over at Marcus. "Why did your son leave?"

"I have no idea." He tone sad and depressed. The only thing holding Tris back, now is Christina holding on to her trembling hands, and Tobias's pleading look.

"You should be more sensitive to others feelings." Peter says mockingly. "Shut up." She says, to frustrated for a better comeback. "Yeah," Christina joins in "Before she blows your non -existing balls off." Tris laughs the exact result Christina wanted out of her.

Four loosens up happy that the this part is over, he didn't want anybody to know. Not yet.

**"I shouldn't be surprised at this point. The Erudite have been attacking us with these reports for months. And this isn't the end. There will be more, I guarantee it." ****I shouldn't speak again, but I can't help myself. I blurt out, "Why are they doing this?"**

**"Why don't you take this opportunity to listen to your father, Beatrice?" my mother says gently. It is phrased like a suggestion, not a command. I look across the table at Caleb, who has that look of disapproval in his eyes. ****I stare at my peas. I am not sure I can live this life of obligation any longer. I am not good enough.**

"Not good enough, more like not good at it." Tris corrects her book self.

**"You know why," my father says. "Because we have something they want. Valuing knowledge above all else results in a lust for power, and that leads men into dark and empty places. We should be thankful that we know better."**

**I nod. I know I will not choose Erudite, even though my test results suggested that I could. I am my father's daughter.**

Caleb feels the guilt coming in.

**My parents clean up after dinner. They don't even let Caleb help them, because we're supposed to keep to ourselves tonight instead of gathering in the family room, so we can think about our results. ****My family might be able to help me choose, if I could talk about my results. But I can't. Tori's warning whispers in my memory every time my resolve to keep my mouth shut falters. ****Caleb and I climb the stairs and, at the top, when we divide to go to our separate bedrooms, he stops me with a hand on my shoulder.**

**"Beatrice," he says, looking sternly into my eyes. "We should think of our family." There is an edge to his voice. "But.**

"But?" Christian asks. "Their was a but?"

"A big but." Tris says.

**But we must also think of ourselves."**

"Whoa, you can tell he was rethinking his choice as well." Zeke states. "No matter what you guys think." Caleb says to his family. "It was a hard decision, for me too."

**For a moment I stare at him. I have never seen him think of himself, never heard him insist on anything but selflessness. ****I am so startled by his comment that I just say what I am supposed to say: "The tests don't have to change our choices." ****He smiles a little. "Don't they, though?"**

**He squeezes my shoulder and walks into his bedroom. I peer into his room and see an unmade bed and a stack of books on his desk. **

"The pile of books should've been an indication." Will says. "I was distracted."

**He closes the door. I wish I could tell him that we're going through the same thing. I wish I could speak to him like I want to instead of like I'm supposed to. But the idea of admitting that I need help is too much to bear, so I turn away.**

**I walk into my room, and when I close my door behind me, I realize that the decision might be simple. It will require a great act of selflessness to choose Abnegation, or a great act of courage to choose Dauntless, and maybe just choosing one over the other will prove that I belong. ****Tomorrow, those two qualities will struggle within me, and only one can win.**

"Well, that's the end of Indesicive."

"Good name." Tris smiles a little. "Inconclusive and Indecisive."

"I I!" Uriah shouts.

Peter shifts in his seat. "So what about Alexandra is she coming back?"

"One way or another," Violet says. "she will have to, the DUTT will force her."

"What does that stand for?" Tori asks. "I think," Caleb interrupts before Violet can speak. "It means Dimensional, Universal Time Travelers."

"Yup." She says.

"So what I'd I miss?" A voice says. Their standing nonchalant leaning on the kitchen door frame is Alexandra.

* * *

><p><strong>That took forever sorry, guys I'm in exams and I thought I'd be able to deliver this quicker but I guess not. <strong>

**Ok a few NB notes: First i'm editing the first few chapter seems I spelt my own OC's name wrong Alexander instead of Alexandra. Second thing is WTF is Edward doing in my story, that was a whoopsie, so I'll also be changing all the Edwards to Roberts.**

**That's all i think... Thanks to all the reviews and faves/follows see you in 1-2 weeks.**

**xoxoIvoryoutxoxo**


	6. Chapter 6

Alexandra's face is puffy and her eyes bloodshot but besides that she looks normal. She carries a huge handbag and 5 pizza boxes.

"Alexandra!" Violet exclaims at the same time Uriah screams pizza. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you about th-" She holds out a hand to stop her from talking. "Not in the mood, Vi."

She places the pizzas on the table before walking back to her chair alongside Peter. "Sorry guys, I had a moment. Not exactly professional I know." She smiles sadly at them.

"We completely understand." Natalie says to her. Alexandra frowns a little seeing the pitying looks everyone was giving her. "Look guys, I'm totally fine." She says protectively.

"So I was thinking," She starts changing the subject. "maybe something that happened in Tris's test was what caused the thing with Eric."

"It could be." Violet says."But when we read it, it was like that."

"I'll write it down just in case." She says taking a pad and pen out from the bag, and scribbling it down. Only a handful of people take slices of pizza, the rest settle on soda and juice from the mini fridges.

"I'll read." Alexandra says when no one says anything. Will hands her the book.

**CHAPTER FIVE**

**THE BUS WE take to get to the Choosing Ceremony is full of people in gray shirts and gray slacks. A pale ring of sunlight burns into the clouds like the end of a lit cigarette. I will never smoke one myself—they are closely tied to vanity—but a crowd of Candor smokes them in front of the building when we get off the bus.**

"How is it close to vanity?" Alexandra asks. "I think it has to do with the fact that your smoking isn't really contributing to anyone but yourself." Tris says confused by it as well.

**I have to tilt my head back to see the top of the Hub, and even then, part of it disappears into the clouds. It is the tallest building in the city. ****I can see the lights on the two prongs on its roof from my bedroom window. I follow my parents off the bus. Caleb seems calm, but so would I, if I knew what I was going to do.**

Caleb sighs, he was kind of disappointed that Tris didn't truly know him, but on the other hand he didn't really know her the way a brother should either. Not until the ceremony that is.

**Instead I get the distinct impression that my heart will burst out of my chest any minute now, and I grab his arm to steady myself as I walk up the front steps. ****The elevator is crowded, so my father volunteers to give a ****cluster of Amity our place. We climb the stairs instead, following him unquestioningly.**

**We set an example for our fellow faction members, and soon the three of us are engulfed in the mass of gray fabric ascending cement stairs in the half light.**

"Wow, you guys are pretty cool." Christina admits, to Tris' parents. "Giving away your place like that."

**I settle into their pace. The uniform pounding of feet in my ears and the homogeneity of the people around me makes me believe that I could choose this. ****I could be subsumed into Abnegation's hive mind, projecting always outward. But then my legs get sore, and I struggle to breathe, and I am again distracted by myself.**

"Beatrice. I mean Tris." Her mother says. "Even the best Abnegation think about themselves every once in a while, it's perfectly normal." She pauses before adding. "I know it doesn't really matter now but, I just thought you should know."

"Thanks."

**We have to climb twenty flights of stairs to get to the Choosing Ceremony. My father holds the door open on the twentieth floor and stands like a sentry as every Abnegation walks past him. I would wait for him, but the crowd presses me forward, out of the stairwell and into the room where I will decide the rest of my life. The room is arranged in concentric circles. **

**On the edges stand the sixteen-year-olds of every faction. ****We are not called members yet; our decisions today will make us initiates, and we will become members if we complete initiation. We arrange ourselves in alphabetical order, according to the last names we may leave behind today. I stand between Caleb and Danielle Pohler, an Amity girl with rosy cheeks and a yellow dress. Rows of chairs for our families make up the next circle. They are arranged in five sections, according to faction. Not everyone in each faction comes to the Choosing Ceremony, but enough of them come that the crowd looks huge. The responsibility to conduct the ceremony rotates from faction to faction each year, and this year is Abnegation's. Marcus will give the opening address and read the names in reverse alphabetical order.**

Four breathes he didn't go, in fact he hasn't been to one since being transferred. He's father would be there, every single year. He doesn't think he could manage seeing him so much.

**Caleb will choose before me. In the last circle are five metal bowls so large they could hold my entire body, if I curled up. ****Each one contains a substance that represents each faction: gray stones for Abnegation, water for Erudite, earth for Amity, lit coals for Dauntless, and glass for Candor. When Marcus calls my name, I will walk to the center of the three circles. I will not speak. He will offer me a knife. I will cut into my hand and sprinkle my blood into the bowl of the faction I choose. **

No one knows what to say. Theirs nothing to say, most of them have experienced it.

**My blood on the stones. My blood sizzling on the coals. Before my parents sit down, they stand in front of Caleb and me. My father kisses my forehead and claps Caleb on the shoulder, grinning. "See you soon," he says. Without a trace of doubt.**

"I had doubt." Andrew admits. "I just tried to look over it as well, and it was very little." For minute Tris wants to sink to the ground in tears and beg her parents forgiveness for her selfishness. But she knows what she did was right. It was her choice. It's her future. She loved her parents- still does but now at least they know she's fine.

"We're really sorry." Tris mumbles to her dad. He looks sad for a while before answering. "I'm sorry I didn't notice my own childrens' unhappiness in our faction."

"We weren't unhappy." Caleb says. "We just didn't feel the Abnegation lifestyle."

Natalie speaks, as a silence falls on the room. "We shouldn't dwell on things of the past. Let's read, and be glad to be in each others presence." Theirs a short pause before Alexandra starts reading.

**My mother hugs me, and what little resolve I have left almost breaks. I clench my jaw and stare up at the ceiling, where globe lanterns hang and fill the room with blue light. She holds me for what feels like a long time, even after I let my hands fall. Before she pulls away, she turns her head and whispers in my ear, "I love you. No matter what."**

"She knew?" Christina asks.

"You knew?" Caleb asks his mom, she said the same too him but he had no idea she knew about Tris as well.

"I knew." She nods. "Then your father knew," She gives him a side glance. "And after thinking it over, we soon came to terms with it right?" Their dad nods. "Not completely but this book is helping me." He says.

**I frown at her back as she walks away.**

"Not the response I was going for." Natalie laughs. "Not the response any of us thought either." Uriah says joining her.

**She knows what I might do. She must know, or she wouldn't feel the need to say that. Caleb grabs my hand, squeezing my palm so tightly it hurts, but I don't let go. The last time we held hands was at my uncle's funeral, as my father cried. We need each other's strength now, just as we did then. **

Tris smiles at her brother at least they had that, amongst the little that bonds them together.

** The room slowly comes to order. I should be observing the Dauntless; I should be taking in as much information as I can, but I can only stare at the lanterns across the room. ****I try to lose myself in the blue glow. Marcus stands at the podium between the Erudite and the Dauntless and clears his throat into the microphone. "Welcome," he says. "Welcome to the Choosing Ceremony. Welcome to the day we honor the democratic philosophy of our ancestors, which tells us that every man has the right to choose his own way in this world."**

"Ugh!" Uriah groans. "Do we really have to sit through all of this? We we're all there expect except Four and Eric." He gestures to the two. "And they heard it when the were choosing, can we just skip this part?"

Violet gives him a sharp look. "Did you not hear me when I said no skipping." It wasn't a question.

"Well, then I need the bathroom." He says getting up. "So do I." Eric and Peter say.

"Yeah right." Violet scoffs. "Vi." Alexandra says in a ending tone. Violet stares at her for a while. "Fine; Four, Zeke bathroom take them." The two don't argue.

Alexandra continues reading as they leave.

**Or, it occurs to me, one of five predetermined ways. I squeeze Caleb's fingers as hard as he is squeezing mine. "Our dependents are now sixteen. They stand on the precipice of adulthood, and it is now up to them to decide what kind of people they will be." Marcus's voice is solemn and gives equal weight to each word.**

**"Decades ago our ancestors realized that it is not political ideology, religious belief, race, or nationalism that is to blame for a warring world. Rather, they determined that it was the fault of human personality—of humankind's inclination toward evil, in whatever form that is. They divided into factions that sought to eradicate those qualities they believed responsible for the world's disarray."**

**My eyes shift to the bowls in the center of the room. What do I believe? I do no know; I do not know;**

"We get it dude, you did not know." Christina huffs.

**I do not know.**

A groan goes through the room. The 5 guys emerge from the bathroom. "Don't bother tying them up." Alexandra digs in her bag and throws them two silver handcuffs. The two look confused for a few seconds before handcuffing them to their chairs by the legs.

"So what'd we miss?" Uriah asks Marlene when he sits down. She laughs, when her and Christina say the same thing. "I do not know."

**"Those who blamed aggression formed Amity." The Amity exchange smiles. They are dressed comfortably, in red or yellow. Every time I see them, they seem kind, loving, free. **

Robert smiles proudly.

**But joining them has never been an option for me.**

His smile quickly turns to a frown, at some point he had wished that Beatrice would switch to Amity and they would live happily ever after. But now she is Tris and he is fine with being just her friend.

**"Those who blamed ignorance became the Erudite." Ruling out Erudite was the only part of my choice that was easy.**

Caleb's suddenly confused. He got Erudite. Tris got Erudite among others. Which one of his parents are Erudite? His father did transfer... did his mom? "Um... sorry to interrupt but I just need to ask my mother something."

"Ok."

"Did you transfer to Abnegation?" He asks. "Yes." She answers before she's sure it's a good idea.

"Interesting." Caleb mumbles. "Can I borrow your tablet?" He doesn't wait for an answer as he scoops it up from the table and begins typing. Alexandra and Violet exchange a knowing look before she begins reading again. _Oh the Priors have always been the curious ones,_ she thinks to herself.

**"Those who blamed duplicity created Candor." I have never liked Candor.**

"For some reason, I'm not insulted." Christina says. "Maybe because you're Dauntless now." Eric says bluntly.

"Oh really, I had no idea." She says sarcasstically. Her fear of Eric was quickly turning to irritation, he can't hurt her. Well, at least not here.

**"Those who blamed selfishness made Abnegation." I blame selfishness;**

"No you don't." Uriah says.

**I do.**

Uriah stares at the book. "Oh book you sure is putting up a fight."

"Book me?" Tris gives him a confused look. "I am book me."

"Not entirely." Caleb says, looking up from the tablet for a split second. "You see; the you, you were then is different from the you, you are now, because the you, you were then didn't go through the things that the you, you are now went through."

Christina scratches the back of her head. "Huh?"

"Great observation." Cara applauds. "I guess I could have worded it better." He says when some of the people in the room still look confused. "Maybe a little slower next time too." Uriah adds.

**"And those who blamed cowardice were the Dauntless." But I am not selfless enough. Sixteen years of trying and I am not enough. My legs go numb, like all the life has gone out of them, and I wonder how I will walk when my name is called.**

"With your legs." Uriah snaps his fingers. "Aren't you ever so helpful." Tris says sarcastically.

"I try."

**"Working together, these five factions have lived in peace for many years, each contributing to adifferent sector of society. Abnegation has fulfilled our need for selfless leaders in government; Candor has provided us with trustworthy and sound leaders in law; Erudite has supplied us with intelligent teachers and researchers; Amity has given us understanding counselors and caretakers; and Dauntless provides us with protection from threats both within and without.**

**But the reach of each faction is not limited to these areas. We give one another far more than can be adequately summarized. In our factions, we find meaning, we find purpose, we find life." **

**I think of the motto I read in my Faction History textbook: Faction before blood. More than family, our factions are where we belong. Can that possibly be right?**

"Hell no." Alexandra says. "Language please." Andrew scolds her.

"Sorry, but screw that motto." She looks at Violet. "She's my family, the people I've met over the years are my family. And if I was told to give her or any of them up for my wildest dreams, I wouldn't... ever." She smiles, indicating to Violet that she forgives her.

They don't need to hug, for everyone to see their strong sisterly bond. "I wish you guys had a proper choice." She continues sadly. Before anyone can say anything she reads.

**Marcus adds, "Apart from them, we would not survive. "The silence that follows his words is heavier than other silences. It is heavy with our worst fear, greater even than the fear of death: to be factionless. **

"Well to bad the worst nightmare came true." Eric says coldly. "Huh Tris, where you going to go after this hmm? How about you Tori?" He grins at them. "No answer? I see, don't you wish this never happened? Alexandra and Violet sure ruined your lives?"

Tris stays silent though she thinks over what he just said._ Is this all their fault? They're just doing their jobs, it isn't like they were doing this on purpose. Are they? Alexandra does seem keen on Tobias but, she also looks at Peter in a certain way. _She shakes the thoughts away. This is what Eric wants for her to hate them.

_Is it working?_

**Marcus continues, "Therefore this day marks a happy occasion—the day on which we receive ournew initiates, who will work with us toward a better society and a better world." A round of applause. It sounds muffled. I try to stand completely still, because if my knees are locked and my body is stiff, I don't shake. Marcus reads the first names, but I can't tell one syllable from the other. How will I know when he calls my name?One by one, each sixteen-year-old steps out of line and walks to the middle of the room. The firstgirl to choose decides on Amity, the same faction from which she came. I watch her blood droplets fall on soil, and she stands behind their seats alone. The room is constantly moving, a ****new name ****and a new person choosing, a new knife and a newchoice.**

"So what each person takes a new knife each time?" Alexandra asks confused. "Yes," Marcus answers. "Then their sterilized, examined and locked away for next year."

"Whoa, long process much."

**I recognize most of them, but I doubt they know me. "James Tucker," Marcus says. James Tucker of the Dauntless is the first person to stumble on his way to the bowls. He throws his arms out and regains his balance before hitting the floor. His face turns red and he walks fast to the middle of the room. When he stands in the center, he looks from the Dauntless bowl to the Candor bowl—the orange flames that rise higher each moment, and the glass reflecting blue light.**

**Marcus offers him the knife. He breathes deeply—I watch his chest rise—and, as he exhales, accepts the knife. Then he drags it across his palm with a jerk and holds his arm out to the side. His blood falls onto glass, and he is the first of us to switch factions. The first faction transfer. A mutter rises from the Dauntless section, and I stare at the floor. They will see him as a traitor from now on.**

"Gosh, Tris." Marlene whines. "You are such a downer, no one saw him as a traitor. Everyone knew James Tucker loved Dauntless, but he was rubbish at it and we all hated him for like 5 minutes when he switched." She says.

"She gets cranky when she's tired." Uriah yawns. Alexandra notices the tired expressions through the room. Even her Peter was tired. "Just need to finish this chapter." She says. Everyone sits up a little on hearing this.

**His Dauntless family will have the option of visiting him in his new faction, a week and a half from now on Visiting Day, but they won't, because he left them. **

"Wow, you're so mean." Marlene says. "You don't know how their family is, you're mom visited you didn't she? Why you gotta hate on others?"

**His absence will haunt their hallways, and he will be a space they can't fill. And then time will pass, and the hole will be gone,**

"The hole never heals Tris." Marcus informs her. Some people in the room give him pitying looks but he waves them off, saying he's fine. "Bullshit." Violet coughs.

"What was that?" Natalie asks her. "I really need to get this cough." She coughs again. "Checked out." Alexandra begins giggling, and everyone stares at the two as if their deranged.

**like when an organ is removed and the body's fluids flow into the space it leaves. Humans can't tolerate emptiness for long. "Caleb Prior," says Marcus.**

**Caleb squeezes my hand one last time, and as he walks away, casts a long look at me over his shoulder. I watch his feet move to the center of the room, and his hands, steady as they accept the knife from Marcus, are deft as one presses the knife into the other. Then he stands with blood pooling in his palm, and his lip snags on his teeth. He breathes out. And then in.**

"You watched me very carefully, I see." Caleb laughs. "I know right, I guess I was just waiting for you to drop your blood in Abnegation."

**And then he holds his hand over the Erudite bowl, and his blood drips into the water, turning it a deeper shade of red.**

A few tears escape Tris as she finally realizes how that say made her feel. Experiencing it left her confused and suprised, but now that she hears it, it leaves her with a deep pain in her chest. She lost her brother. To the Erudite. And it hurts.

**I hear mutters that lift into outraged cries. I can barely think straight. My brother, my selflessbrother, a faction transfer? My brother, born for Abnegation, Erudite? When I close my eyes, I see the stack of books on Caleb's desk, and his shaking hands sliding along his legs after the aptitude test. Why didn't I realize that when he told me to think of myself yesterday, he was also giving that advice to himself?**

Tris shouldn't care, but she can't help but be mad at Caleb now for his choice.

**I scan the crowd of the Erudite—they wear smug smiles and nudge each other. The Abnegation, normally so placid, speak to one another in tense whispers and glare across the room at the faction that has become our enemy. ****"Excuse me," says Marcus, but the crowd doesn't hear him. He shouts, "Quiet, please!" The room goes silent. Except for a ringing sound.**

**I hear my name and a shudder propels me forward. Halfway to the bowls, I am sure that I will choose Abnegation. I can see it now. I watch myself grow into a woman in Abnegation robes, marrying Susan's brother, Robert, **

"What?!" Half of the room screams, it soon turns to laughter. "What?" Tris asks, red. "He was the only boy, I actually knew, properly it just seemed like it would be him."

Robert starts laughing as well. After the room calms down Tris can't help but feel insulted, for some unknown reason.

**volunteering on the weekends, the peace of routine, the quiet nights spent in front of the fireplace, the certainty that I will be safe, and if not good enough, better than I am now. The ringing, I realize, is in my ears. I look at Caleb, who now stands behind the Erudite. He stares back at me and nods a little, like he knows what I'm thinking, and agrees. **

"I did," He says placing the tablet down. "It took me years, but I finally understood you didn't want Abnegation either."

**My footsteps falter. If Caleb wasn't fit for Abnegation, how can ****I be? But what choice do I have, now that he left us and I'm the only one who remains? He left me noother option. I set my jaw. I will be the child that stays; I have to do this for my parents. ****Marcus offers me my knife. I look into his eyes—they are dark blue, a strange color—and take it.**

"I didn't realize." Marcus says. To cover up her string of insults to him Tris quickly covers it up saying it suits him, in a mockingly nice tone.

**He nods, and I turn toward the bowls. Dauntless fire and Abnegation stones are both on my left, one in front of my shoulder and one behind. I hold the knife in my right hand and touch the blade to my palm. Gritting my teeth, I drag the blade down. It stings, but I barely notice. **

**I hold both hands to my chest, and my next breath shudders on the way out. I open my eyes and thrust my arm out. My blood drips onto the carpet between the two bowls. Then, with a gasp I can't contain, I shift my hand forward, and my blood sizzles on the coals. ****I am selfish. I am brave.**

Natalie gaze lands on the floor. She doesn't blame them for leaving; in fact on the day of the Choosing Ceremony she knew neither of her children would stay. It felt as if her heart had been pulled out when they left, but she knew it would happen. She loves them, always will and she's sure Andrew feels the same.

"I think it's time for bed." Alexandra encourages everyone.

After uncuffing Peter and Eric, the group groggily follow her through the door that leads to the bedrooms. It's a long hallway with 8 doors at equal large distances from each other. Each room has a large dresser filled with clothes, a bathroom, equipped with showers and a toilet and a air conditioner to take up place for the lack of windows.

The two split up the bunch into room mates. Cara, Christina and Marlene in one room, Lynn, Tori, Susan and Tris in another.

Eric, Robert, Four and Zeke in the first male room, while Uriah, Will, Caleb and a very reluctant Peter in another. Marcus is placed in a room alone, and The Prior couple sleep in another. After little argument everyone goes to bed all thinking of the events that occurred today.

Alexandra and Violet postions themselves at opposite ends of the hallway. They decided before getting here that neither would sleep in a room, and they would take turns guarding; in case someone tries to escape, or Eric and Peter try something. "Go to sleep, Vi. I'll be fine." Alexandra says. Violet nods and sleeps their on the floor with nothing but a pillow and her hand tightly wrapped around her gun.

* * *

><p>Alexandra needs to stay up for 4 hours, then wake up Vi for her turn. She spends her time, tick- tocking with the clock that hangs high above Violet's sleeping form on the wall. She plays on her tablet, thinks of Peter and dozes off every now and then.<p>

Until, there's the sound of a door creaking open. Theirs a window close to the ceiling above her that allows her to remain in the dark as she watches the person who tries to sneak out, in the moonlight. It's Tris. Alexandra keeps her eyes on the girl, thankful she had the thought to switch off the hallway light. A few seconds later theirs another door opening. It's Four- Tobias... whichever name he calls himself now.

She's about to speak, when the two embrace each other. "Oh Tobias." Tris whispers. Alexandra strangely feels like a third wheel, an invisible, silent third wheel. Luckily Violet stirs when they begin to talk and the two retreat to the room where they began reading the book.

Before the door can fully close Alexandra holds it open a crack to listen to their conversation, for all she knew they could be planning an escape. "So what do you think?" She hears Tobias ask her, in the dark. Neither of the two dared switch on the light.

"I think they're going to find out about us, I wasn't exactly ignoring you in my thoughts during training." She answers.

"So we tell them?"

"Tomorrow, morning." They continue to talking for a long time, asking each other if the other is okay and how the other is dealing with this. They even talk about her and Violet. When the topic of Marcus arises Alexandra immediately feels she's invading their privacy and silently closes the door before returning to her position on the floor. A few minutes later the lovers are back in the hallway bidding each other goodnight, with multiple kisses.

_Aaw,_ Alexandra almost whispers multiple times. _They were cute, and love was around the corner for the two._ When they finally seperate and leave to their rooms Alexandra checks the time 2 hours left.

She groans. This is gonna be a long night.

* * *

><p><strong>Hey peeps! Exams over! School over! Fanfiction and me can finally be together! Whoo-Hoo!<strong>

**So I was thinking let's not make this all readig the books. I like TrisXFour and next chapter is gonna have a little of what happens during the rest of the night, some cute breakfast moments and of course reading the books.**

**Maybe some PeterXAlexandra don't hate.**

**Until next time, lot's of love. ****Review, favorite, follow XXX**


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